House of the Brave: A New Generation
by islandgirl394
Summary: Join Victoire in her first year at Hogwarts as she navigates the trials of making friends, dealing with bad roomates, and finding her place. There's a Weasley back at Hogwarts; a new generation has begun. Part of a larger series.
1. September

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 **Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters and places from the Harry Potter world, which is trademarked by JK Rowling. However, all plots are my own and are in no way endorsed by JK Rowling or anyone affiliated with the Harry Potter universe.**

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Chapter 1: September 2011

"I wanna come with you!" Dominique screamed, clutching onto Victoire's arm in desperation. "Don't leave me here with just _him_ ," she sneered in the direction of her younger brother.

Dominique was nine, two years away from her first day of school. Louis was seven, the perfect age for being the most annoying brother on the planet. Victoire felt bad for her sister, she really did. But she had done her waiting, and Dominique was just going to have to suck it up and deal with Louis for the next two years without her.

" _Maman_ ," Victoire complained, gesturing to Dominique. Fleur Delacour-Weasley reached forward and pulled a struggling Dominique off her sister. " _Merci_ ," Victoire said in thanks.

"What if Victoire just waited a couple years to start Hogwarts?" Dominique suggested, looking up at their mother. "We could be in the same year. We could share a dorm and have sleepover parties all the time!"

"I'd be the only thirteen-year-old first year," Victoire pointed out. "Everyone would make fun of me."

"I wouldn't," Dominique vowed.

" _Chèrie_ ," their mother said, crouching down so that she was eye-level with Dominique. "We talked about this. Victoire is going to go to school and you are going to come home with Louis, _papa_ and me."

Dominique sighed. "Alright," she conceded. "At least promise to write me at least once a week," she added, looking up at her sister.

"I promise," Victoire swore. Anything to get her on the train without a nine-year-old wrapped around her leg.

"And not just general letters to the family, I want letters just for me," Dominique demanded.

"Okay, I promise," Victoire assured her. "I'll write letters just for you."

"Do I get letters just for me too?" Louis asked, eager to join the conversation.

"Sure Louis, I'll write some letters just for you too," Victoire promised.

Just then, the scarlet steam engine blew the whistle that meant that there were only five minutes left to board the train.

"I better get going," Victoire announced, suddenly feeling very nervous. This was it. She was about to go to Hogwarts. She was going to get on a train full of strangers and go to a building full of even more strangers while the rest of her family went home to their beautiful cottage by the sea. She was going to miss waking up to the seagulls cawing and the smell of the ocean.

"Alright sweetheart," her father, Bill Weasley, said. "Now don't forget, Uncle Harry told Teddy to keep an eye out for you, so if you need anything, you can ask him. And you know lots of the teachers, so you can always go to them if you need also."

"I know," Victoire said. Not that she was going to ask the teachers for help. Just because she knew Professor Longbottom and Professor Tonks from Christmas parties at the Burrow didn't mean she was going to become a teacher's pet. If she did need anything, she would go to Teddy. Knowing an older student would make her seem cool. Knowing the teachers would only make her look super lame.

"We'll see you at Christmas," her mother said, pulling her into a tight hug. "We know you'll have a great time."

"And remember, studying is important, but don't forget to have fun too," her father added.

The train blew its final whistle and Victoire gave one last round of hugs to her family before climbing up into the train. Her father lifted up her trunk and passed it to her and she waved as the train started to move.

"Goodbye!" Victoire called out. "I'll miss you!"

"We'll miss you too sweetheart," her father called back.

"I'll miss you the most!" Dominique cried loudly.

Victoire smiled as the train picked up speed and her family quickly became smaller and smaller before disappearing altogether. With a deep breath, she turned around and found herself colliding with another student.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there!" Victoire cried out apologetically.

The boy she'd collided with looked her up and down before sneering at her. "First years sit at the back of the train," he said. "This compartment is for third years only."

"Oh!" Victoire exclaimed in surprise. "I didn't realize there was a rule about that. My father never mentioned…"

"You'd better learn your place and learn it fast, Flob, because I don't have time to deal with first years who don't know to keep out of my way."

"Hey!" a familiar voice called out. Victoire breather a sigh of relief as Teddy walked over and stepped between her and the older student. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I was just telling the Flob to stay out of my way," the boy said. "She just ran right into me, came straight out of nowhere."

"I did not!" Victoire exclaimed, suddenly feeling very confident with Teddy standing right there. "I was only turning around; you were the one flying down the corridor.

"Now you listen here, Flob," the boy said, taking a step towards her with his finger pointed directly at her.

"Hey, you leave her alone," Teddy insisted. "She didn't do anything wrong and if you continue to harass her, I'm going to have to call a prefect down here."

"You wouldn't call for a prefect," the boy sneered. "Besides, they're all up at the front of the train for their meeting. They won't be patrolling for another ten minutes at least. You're bluffing."

"Try me," Teddy said, staring the boy down.

For a moment, Victoire didn't know what was going to happen. Teddy and the other boy were locked in a death stare and meanwhile, she was stuck in the third year's car when she should really be at the back with the other first years! Finally, the boy gave in.

"Whatever," he muttered, backing away. "My friends are waiting for me anyway."

As soon as he was gone, Victoire flung her arms around Teddy. "Thank you! I'm so sorry, I didn't know about the rule about where you can sit. You'd think my dad would have told me about that…"

"What rule?" Teddy asked with a frown.

"The one about how first years have to sit in the last car," Victoire clarified.

Teddy smiled and tried to hide his laugh. "There's no rule, Vic," he assured her. "Marcus just hates first years."

"Oh," Victoire said, relieved. "Well then I guess just thanks."

"No problem," Teddy said. "Where are you sitting? Do you need help getting your trunk somewhere?"

"I don't really know," Victoire said. "I hadn't gotten around to looking for a place to sit."

"Well c'mon then, you can sit with me and my mate Billy," Teddy offered.

"Thanks!" Victoire said gratefully. Now she didn't have to wander around the train awkwardly trying to find someone who would let her sit with them.

Teddy grabbed Victoire's trunk and began dragging it behind him as they made their way back down the corridor.

"Hey, Teddy?" Victoire asked.

"Yeah?" Teddy replied.

"What's a Flob?"

"Oh, don't worry about it. That's just a mean nickname some Slytherins came up with to make fun of first years," Teddy said.

"What does it mean?" Victoire wondered.

"It's a shortened form of Flobberworm," Teddy told her. "I think the idea is that first years are like worms that you step on and then you get gunk all over your shoe. If you hear it again, just ignore it. Most of us think it's a pretty lame nickname anyway."

"Okay," Victoire said. It was easy not to be bothered by mean nicknames when Teddy was telling her not to. She wasn't so sure how she would react if she was ever cornered by an older Slytherin again. Hopefully she would get sorted into either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw – the towers were far from the dungeons, so she would cross paths with them less often.

"Here we are," Teddy announced with a flourish as he opened the door to a compartment with only one occupant. "Billy, this is Victoire Weasley, a family friend. It's her first year and she doesn't know anybody yet, so I said she could sit with us."

"Nice to meet you Victoire," Teddy's friend said, extending a hand to shake. "Billy Carmichael."

"You too," Victoire returned as Teddy hoisted her trunk up into the luggage rack and sat down. "So are Byou in Gryffindor with Teddy?"

"That's right!" Billy exclaimed proudly. "House of the brave."

"I want to be in Gryffindor too," Victoire announced. "My dad was in Gryffindor and so was most of my family."

"Well it is the best house," Billy agreed. "Hey Teddy, did you happen to see the candy cart when you were out there?"

"The train literally just started moving. The trolley lady probably hasn't even started her rounds yet," Teddy said rolling his eyes at his friend.

"Well I'm just going to go and check on that," Billy said, getting up and grabbing some knuts from his trunk as he went. "I'll be right back."

As the door shut behind him, Victoire slid over to the window seat and gazed out at the scenery flashing by.

"Nervous?" Teddy asked, watching her.

"A little," Victoire said. It was okay right now, because she was with Teddy. But when they got to Hogwarts she would be with all the other first years and she didn't know any of them.

"Hey, it's going to be fine," Teddy reassured her. "First year's a piece of cake. They barely give you any homework, so you'll have lots of free time to play. All the Professors are super nice and the food is _fantastic_."

"But – "

"I swear, it's fantastic," Teddy promised. "Billy will second that as soon as he gets back. Don't tell Grandma Weasley, but their steak and kidney pie? To die for."

"Oh, I believe you about the food," Victoire assured him. "It's just…"

"Just what?" Teddy prompted when Victoire didn't finish her sentence.

Victoire took a deep breath before continuing. "What if I don't make any friends?" she asked. "What if everyone hates me and I have to spend seven years hiding out in the library or something?"

"What?" Teddy balked. "Are you crazy? How could you not make friends? You're Victoire Weasley, everyone's going to want to be your friend."

"It's just… you know… with _maman_ …"

Victoire trailed off. Her mother was part Veela – a quarter Veela in fact, which made Victoire and eighth part Veela. Even though an eighth wasn't enough to inherit Veela powers, Victoire had still managed to inherit her mother's beauty. Ever since she and her siblings had been little, people had fawned over them, saying they were the most beautiful children they'd ever seen. When her mother had been in school, she hadn't had that many friends. All the girls had been too jealous of her good looks and the effect she had on the boys that they hadn't wanted to befriend her. Victoire was afraid that the same would happen to her.

"That's not going to happen," Teddy promised, realizing what was bothering her. "Your mother… well from what I overheard from Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron that one time, I don't think she was exactly looking for friends. And besides, you're one of the most interesting and fun people I know. Anyone would be a Flob for not wanting to be friends with you."

"I thought you didn't like that name?" Victoire said.

"Yeah, well, if someone met you and didn't want to be your friend, then they deserve to be called a Flob," Teddy said.

Victoire smiled. "Thanks Teddy," she said.

"No problem," Teddy smiled back.

VvVvVvVvVvV

Well, here we are," Billy announced as the train came to a stop. "Hogsmeade station. End of the line."

"You ready?" Teddy asked a very nervous looking Victoire.

"Not really, but I guess it's time to go," she gulped as she listened to Hagrid's voice outside calling for the first years to gather.

"You'll be fine," Teddy said. "I'll see you later in the common room."

"You're assuming I'll get into Gryffindor," Victoire pointed out.

"You're a Weasley, it's practically guaranteed."

Victoire smiled and with a deep breath, she led the way out of the compartment and down onto the platform. She waved goodbye to Teddy and Billy as they headed for the flying carriages and she followed the stream of first years towards the boats.

"Firs' years, follow me!" Hagrid's voice called out again for any stragglers. He did a quick head count to make sure he had all of them and then began leading them towards the lake.

"Why does everyone else get to go that way?" an extremely nervous first year next to Victoire wondered.

"They're going to take the carriages up to the school," Victoire told her. "But they make the first years ride in boats. It's supposed to give us the full effect for our first view of the castle."

"Boats?" the girl asked shakily. "I don't like boats. I get seasick."

"Don't worry, it's not for long. We just have to cross the lake. It'll take ten, fifteen minutes at most. And the boats are powered by magic, so they don't shake as much," Victoire told her.

"How do you know so much?" the girl asked.

"My dad and all my aunts and uncles on his side of the family went to Hogwarts, and they love telling stories about 'the good old days'," Victoire said.

"That's cool," the girl said. "Neither of my parents is magical, so this is all really new to me."

"I'm Victoire Weasley," Victoire said with a smile.

"I'm Ellie," the girl replied. "Ellie Sawbridge."

They came to a halt and Hagrid called out that it was time to get into the boats. Four to a boat, he instructed. Victoire and Ellie clambered to the shore and got into an empty boat and were quickly joined by two more girls who introduced themselves as Kara and Marsha.

When everyone was safely in the boats, they all started to move at the same time. Nobody did much speaking as they glided across the water. When the castle came into view, Victoire marveled at it's size. Her family had told her stories, but she'd never comprehended until now just how big this castle really was. Especially considering how few students really attended.

All too soon, they had arrived and were climbing out of the boats onto the docks. They were too close to the castle now to see it in its entirety, but just looking up, Victoire marveled at how high it seemed to go.

"Doesn't it look like it reaches all the way up to heaven?" Ellie asked.

"Yeah," Victoire breathed.

"It doesn't, you know," another girl scoffed from nearby.

"Obviously we know that," Victoire countered. "It just _looks_ like it from here."

"Alrigh' firs' years, this way," Hagrid called out once they were all out of the boats. Victoire hurried after him eagerly, wanting to see more of the castle. It was massive. There were so many corridors and doors everywhere, Victoire started to wonder how she was going to navigate her way around the school. Would they give her a map? Her father had never mentioned a map, but she thought it would be a good thing to have.

Soon they were outside the Great Hall and Hagrid was telling them to wait while he went in to see if they were ready for them. Moments later, Professor Longbottom emerged to give them instructions about the sorting. Victoire already knew all about the sorting from her family, but she listened intently anyway.

All too soon, it was time. Professor Longbottom pushed the double doors open and Victoire walked forward with the rest of the first years, trying to keep in the middle of the pack. Less eyes were on her if she was in the middle. The sorting hat rested on its stool at the front as once they had gathered around, it opened its mouth and began to sing.

Instead of paying attention to the song, which was probably just telling her stuff she already knew, Victoire scanned the room for Teddy. She was getting more and more nervous by the minute and he was the only familiar face she knew, besides the teachers. She found him sitting about halfway down the Gryffindor table and waited until she caught his eye. He smiled and made the thumbs-up motion with his hand, which didn't do much to calm Victoire's nerves, but at least she knew she had someone rooting for her in the crowd.

When the song was over, Professor Longbottom began to start calling names. The first boy, Nathan Abran, was sent almost immediately to Slytherin. The next few altered between Gryffindor and Slytherin, and then a whole pack went to Ravenclaw. Lucas Fraser was the first Huffepuff, eliciting a huge round of applause from the table in the middle right.

When Ellie's turn came, Victoire hoped she would be in Gryffindor with her, since they were already sort-of friends. The sorting hat deliberated with her for a while, but in the end it declared her a Hufflepuff.

As they started with the T's Victoire started to shift nervously from one foot to the other. Being a Weasley was great, but it also meant that she was going to be one of the last to be called. Soon, it was just her and one other girl waiting to be called while Maya Watson happily ran off to become a Hufflepuff.

"Weasley, Victoire," Professor Longbottom declared. As Victoire climbed the steps, she saw Neville shoot her a furtive smile. She sat down on the stool, hoping to catch a glimpse of Teddy before she was sorted, but before she could the hat was lowered onto her head and she was plunged into darkness.

"Oh," a voice whispered into her ear. "It's been a long time since I've had the pleasure of sorting one of you," the hat said to her and only her. "I'd started to wonder if there were any of you left, but it seems that there are." Victoire wondered what the hat meant, but of course, the hat sensed the question and answered it for her. "Why, you're a Weasley, of course," the hat said. "I haven't sorted a Weasley since 1992." That would have been Aunt Ginny, Victoire thought to herself. "That's right, Ginny. Gryffindor through and through she was. How is she doing?" the hat wondered. Aren't you supposed to be sorting me, Victoire wondered back. "Right you are, right you are. Well, this should be easy. GRYFFINDOR!" the hat called out, the last word audible to the whole hall.

The Gryffindor table cheered and when Professor Longbottom pulled the hat off her head, Victoire made sure to scan the crowd for Teddy right away. He was beaming at her and she smiled back as she stood up from the stool and scampered over to the table to take a seat.

She barely paid any attention as the final girl was sorted. She must have gone to either Ravenclaw or Slytherin, because the applause was coming from that side of the room. Instead, Victoire breathed in and looked around from her new vantage point. This was it. She was a Gryffindor. This was officially _her_ table. She would eat here for the next seven years, surrounded by these people.

As the feast began, Victoire looked around at the other first years. Nobody at their end of the table was really talking, instead all appeared very interested in their food. Deciding to step up and show some of her Gryffindor bravery, Victoire cleared her throat to speak.

"Hi!" she said. "I'm Victoire Weasley."

It was simple, but it did the job. The other first years gave their names and a few conversations started up. Victoire was sitting next to a boy named Cameron Philbrick and across was a boy named Nathanial Peterson. They both seemed very interested in Quidditch, a topic Victoire didn't have much to say about. She nodded along though and paid attention, throwing in a comment or two whenever she could. She was doing well, she thought, for her first attempt at making friends.

When the feast was over, the prefects began calling for the first years to gather to be led back to their houses. As they headed out of the hall and up the stairs, Victoire discovered the biggest downfall of being in Gryffindor: the dorms were in a tower, all the way at the very top of the castle. At least the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs only had to go down one flight of stairs. Meanwhile Victoire was already exhausted by the fourth floor. One thing was for certain, Victoire thought, by the end of her seven years, she was going to be very in shape.

They got to the common room before the rest of the house; the welcome feast was designed that way. Older students were supposed to wait behind for a few minutes to give the first years a chance to take in their new home without it being intimidating. It wasn't long though before some seventh years were clearing all the younger students out.

"First through fourth years, get up to your dorms, this is an upperclassman party only," one boy cried out.

"Well that doesn't seem fair," Victoire muttered, not really to anyone in particular.

"They do this every year," Teddy said, appearing at her side.

"Yeah," Billy added, coming up next to Teddy. "But it's not like we're missing anything really. I snuck down last year to see what was going on, and everyone was just standing around talking to each other while this really bad music was playing."

"Besides, tomorrow's your first day of classes," Teddy added. "You'll want to have gotten a good night's sleep. The upperclassmen are always like zombies the day after the welcome party."

"Hey, you lot!" an upperclassman shouted. "Clear out!"

Teddy shot Victoire an apologetic look.

"Well, goodnight I guess," Victoire shrugged, looking dubiously at the stairs leading to the girls' dormitories. She still hadn't properly met any of the other female first year Gryffindors and she was nervous about how they would get along. After all, she had to share a dorm room with them for the next seven years.

"It'll be fine," Teddy assured her, sensing her hesitation. "See you tomorrow."

With a smile, a wave, and one more very rude seventh year telling them to get upstairs, Victoire ventured up to the dorm. The first year dorm was the third from the main floor and when she reached it, she could hear voices coming from the other side. Summoning her Gryffindor bravery again, she pushed open the door to face her dorm mates.

"Hi!" she greeted the slightly familiar faces. "I'm Victoire Weasley, we met down at the feast."

"You're the girl who got everyone talking!" a girl with long dark brown hair said admirably. "That was really bold of you, I never could have just spoken like that. I'm Brianna Jackson by the way."

"Nice to meet you," Victoire smiled. She hadn't really thought much of her actions at dinner, but she wasn't about to contradict the girl.

"I'm Raina Hudson," the next nearest girl introduced herself. She was extremely short and had short blond curly hair.

"Kara Jensen," the third girl smiled, extending her hand. She was taller even than Victoire, which was saying something, and had brown hair that was currently tied in two braids. "I think you were in my boat earlier?"

"Yes, I remember you," Victoire smiled, shaking her hand again.

"And that's Caitlin over there," Raina gestured to the last girl, who was standing on her bed as she hung Quidditch posters all over her wall.

"Hey," Caitlin greeted with a wave. Her light brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail that was swinging around wildly as she tried to balance herself enough to get her posters straight.

Victoire returned the greeting and then wandered over to the bed that was clearly hers as her trunk was set up at the foot. It looked like Kara and Brianna had the beds on either side of Victoire, with Caitlin on Brianna's other side and Raina next to Caitlin.

"Hey, do you guys mind if I unpack some of my stuff?" Raina asked.

"What do you think I'm doing?" Caitlin asked, sticking a poster of the Holyhead Harpies up with sellotape. "Make yourself at home. That's what this is, isn't it?"

"Great," Raina said, flinging open her trunk.

"Ugh, what's that smell?" Kara asked, coughing and covering her nose.

Victoire turned her head and caught a whiff of whatever it was, causing her to gag a little and then cover her nose with her robe.

"Oh, that's probably just my fertilizer. I make it myself you know. It's a combination of a few different things. I'm still trying to perfect it," Raina said excitedly.

"Um, why?" Kara asked, her nose scrunched up. "You know there are tons of perfectly good fertilizers out there."

"Sure, but I want to create the perfect one. Not just a passable one. One that will make the best plants," Raina explained. "After all, without the ideal fertilizer, how can I ever hope to grow plants to simulate potions ingredients like eye of newt?"

"I don't know," Kara responded. "Why would you want to do that?"

"Well because that way we wouldn't have to kill newts to get their eyes for potions," Raina said. "If we could just grow them, it would be a lot more humane."

"You know that's insane, right?" Kara asked. "You can't simulate eye of newt. It's the eye of a newt. By definition, it comes from a newt."

"It's fine, you don't have to believe me now," Raina said. "But one day when we're older and you're working a boring desk job at the Ministry, I'm going to be famous."

"Keep dreaming," Kara muttered, reaching into her trunk.

"What was that?" Raina asked. "You think this is just a joke?"

"No, I definitely didn't say that," Kara said defensively.

"Hey, Raina, if you want to grow your own eye of newt, then I say go for it. That's what dreams are for, aren't they?" Caitlin said. "I'm going to be a professional Quidditch player, and whenever people tell me I'm crazy, I just tell them that they don't know what they're talking about."

"It's not that I don't think we should have dreams," Kara said. "I just think they should be realistic."

Caitlin hopped down from the bed. "So what's your big dream then Jensen?" she asked. "To work at a reasonable-paying job and marry a reasonably good looking man and have a reasonable number of kids? That's realistic, isn't it?"

"I dunno," Kara shrugged non-commitally. "I guess I don't really have a dream," she said, turning around and grabbing her pyjamas and bathroom kit. Victoire suspected that she did in fact have a dream, but that she probably just didn't want to share it with such a hostile interrogator.

As she left to change in the bathroom, Victoire glanced over at Brianna to see how she seemed to feel about the whole thing. Catching her eye, Victoire raised her eyebrows questioningly. In response, Brianna glanced over at Raina and then rolled her eyes dramatically. Victoire tried to stifle a giggle and instead nodded her head in agreement. Sure, she probably wouldn't have called Raina out on it, but she did agree with Kara.

"Well I'm going to bed," Caitlin announced, flopping down on her bed still fully clothed. After what happened with Kara, Victoire didn't dare comment on it and instead grabbed her bathroom things and joined Kara in the bathroom.

"Hey," Victoire said, pushing the door open slowly so as not to surprise the other girl.

"Mmph," Kara returned, her mouth full of toothpaste. She held up a finger and then spat into the sink, rinsing out her mouth before turning back. "Hey."

"For what it's worth, I think that fertilizer belongs right where it came from; the garbage," Victoire said, laying out her things on the counter. "Merlin it smells awful."

"Right?" Kara exclaimed. "I thought I was the only one! I hope she gives up on that soon, because I don't know if I can take seven years of that stench. Do you think they'd let me switch houses? I hear Hufflepuff isn't bad."

"I don't think so," Victoire responded. "It looks like we're stuck here."

"Well at least you're sane," Kara sighed in relief. "From the minute we got up here, Caitlin wouldn't stop talking about Quidditch. You're lucky you stayed downstairs until you did."

"Oh good, you guys don't like Quidditch either?" a voice said from behind. Kara and Victoire turned around to find Brianna entering cautiously. "I thought it was just me. I don't know what I would've done if I was stuck rooming with four Quidditch nuts."

"Oh don't worry, Quidditch is so not my thing," Victoire assured the other girl. "I mean, I don't mind watching if my family are playing a game in the yard, but who wants to sit around and watch a bunch of strangers fly around for hours? I mean, hello? I have a life!"

"Oh my gosh, you guys are awesome!" Kara exclaimed as she brushed out her hair. I thought I was doomed when I first got here."

Suddenly, there was a loud crash from downstairs.

"What do you think's going on at the party down there?" Victoire mumbled, still a little upset about how unceremoniously the upperclassmen had thrown them all out.

"There's a party?" Brianna asked.

"Yeah, just for the upperclassmen. I guess you guys were already up here when they started kicking everyone out. My friend Teddy, he's a third year, he says they do this every year. It's just for fifth through seventh years."

"You have a friend in third year?" Kara gaped, staring at Victoire like she was the Queen.

"Yeah, it's no big deal, he's like a family friend. His godfather is my uncle and since his parents died when he was young, Uncle Harry was really involved in raising him, so he was always around at big family events and stuff. He's practically one of my cousins."

"Wait, Uncle Harry like Harry Potter?" Brianna asked.

"Yeah," Victoire replied, blushing a little. It was still weird, having people get excited when they realized who she was related to.

"Oh my gosh, that's so cool," Kara gushed. "What's he like?"

"He's alright I guess," Victoire shrugged. "I mean; I just think of him as Uncle Harry who's always walking into stuff. He got these Muggle contact lenses a few years back, I think he was trying to make himself less recognizable. Anyway, he can't see out of them at all, so now he's constantly knocking things over wherever he goes. Aunt Ginny keeps telling him to just wear his glasses, but he's too stubborn to listen."

"Wow," Brianna said in admiration.

"So cool," Kara added.

"Well anyway, he's just my uncle, so it's really no big deal," Victoire said. She turned back to the sink and finished washing her face while the two girls continued to watch her. "Seriously, it's not a big deal. I see him at holidays and stuff, it's not like he's my dad or anything."

"So is your dad Ron Weasley?" Kara asked.

" _Mon dieu_ ," Victoire sighed in French. " _Non_ , my father is Uncle Ron's oldest brother Bill. See? I come from a totally normal, non-famous family."

"If you say so," Brianna muttered, spreading some toothpaste on her toothbrush.

"I think I'm going to go to bed," Victoire announced, tired of the direction of the conversation. "Goodnight," she added, as she returned to the dorm.

The minute she entered, the stench of the fertilizer filled her nostrils. In the time she'd been gone, Raina had unpacked even more so that now every surface of her living area was covered by plants, all of which, Victoire was willing to bet, had been treated with her special fertilizer. Meanwhile, Caitlin seemed to be in a deep sleep, rolling around on her bed in agitation.

Not in the mood to socialize with Raina or to watch Caitlin engage in a fight with her pillows, Victoire climbed into her four-poster bed and pulled the curtains shut around her. Suddenly realizing how exhausted she was, she leaned back and pulled the covers over herself, letting her mind drift off as sleep overcame her.

VvVvVvVvVvV

"Defence sucked, History of Magic was a bore, the Charms Professor was like a thousand years old… the only good class we had today was Transfiguration," Brianna grumbled as she, Kara, and Victoire headed to the Great Hall for dinner.

"I thought Charms was alright," Kara jumped in defense of the class they had just finished.

"Well sure, the subject is fine, but it took half the class for Flitwick to take the attendance. How much are we going to learn if he goes that slow all the time?" Brianna replied.

"And Transfiguration was okay?" Victoire challenged. "It was literally just a much of theory. We're not even going to use our wands until November. At least in Charms and Defence we're going to be doing actual magic."

"Yeah, but Defence going to be a super hands-on, practical class," Kara pointed out. "Are you sure you're ready to have people trying to hex you on your second week?"

"Yeah, not so much," Victoire agreed as they sat down at the Gryffindor table. "So what're you guys up to tonight?" she wondered.

"I picked off a bunch of my nail polish in History, so I definitely need to re-paint my nails," Kara declared.

"Ooh, we could give each other manicures!" Brianna exclaimed. "Victoire, you in?"

"Definitely," Victoire smiled. She'd been hoping they might want to do something together. It looked like the whole making friends thing was working out after all.

"Seriously?" Raina asked as she passed them at the table. "Do you know how many awful chemicals they put in nail polish? That stuff can seep into your skin and make your fingers fall off you know."

"No it can't," Kara retorted. "Now you're just making stuff up."

"Alright, go ahead. Paint your nails. But don't come crying to me when you only have three fingers left forty years from now," Raina shot back at them before stalking away to sit with Caitlin and a few of the boys in their year. Victoire recognized one of the boys she'd talked to at the welcome feast, Cameron Philbrick, among them.

"Our fingers aren't really going to fall off, are they?" Brianna asked nervously, looking down at hers and picking at them nervously.

"Definitely not," Victoire responded. "Think about it. This is coming from 'I'm going to grow my own eye of newt' girl."

Kara and Brianna laughed.

"I'm sorry, you're going to grow your own what?" a voice Victoire was getting far too used to hearing asked.

Victoire smirked as Teddy and Billy took seats with them. She introduced Kara and Brianna and then explained about Raina and her plants.

"Wow," Billy said when Victoire was done. "Well, there's always a crazy in every dorm. At least you already know who yours is."

"Who's your crazy?" Victoire asked.

Teddy and Billy exchanged a look.

"Tyson Perry," Billy replied. "He's so obsessed with Quidditch. Convinced he's going to make the team this year."

"Well that's not so crazy," Kara offered. "Lots of people like Quidditch."

"He sleeps with a Quaffle in his bed," Teddy said.

"Okay yeah, that's weird," Kara agreed.

"When he didn't make the team last year, he went on a rampage and smashed a whole bunch of his stuff. He refused to mend it or clean it up, so the dorm was a mess for weeks," Billy added.

"Well I hope he makes it this year," Brianna muttered.

"Yeah, me too," Teddy agreed.

"Billy! Teddy! You guys coming?" a guy's voice called from the end of the table.

"Be there in a second!" Teddy called back. "Hey," he said to the girls, "it was nice meeting you, but we've got to go now. We'll see you around though?"

Kara and Brianna nodded.

"Bye Vic!" Teddy called out, waving as he followed Billy out.

Victoire waved back and then turned back to her food.

"So that's your third year friend?" Kara asked.

"Yeah, that's Teddy," Victoire confirmed.

"He is so cool," Brianna gushed.

"Really?" Victoire asked, looking back at the boy's retreating form. "I mean I guess so."

"Definitely," Kara said.

"For sure," Brianna agreed.

VvVvVvVvVvV

Over the next few weeks, Kara, Brianna, and Victoire continued to spend time together and became very good friends. They saw Teddy a lot during their first week, but less as they settled in. Victoire figured he had just been doing his duty to Uncle Harry by making sure she was alright.

Caitlin had been in a bad mood ever since the Quidditch team tryouts when she'd been told first years weren't allowed to tryout. She's argued that they'd made an exception for Harry Potter, but the response had been that he'd been exactly that – an exception. As a result, she seemed to be taking her frustration out on Victoire, since Victoire was related to Harry, and so now anytime Caitlin was around, Victoire would receive the cold shoulder. Not that she cared much anyway. Even from the beginning she hadn't liked Caitlin all that much.

Raina continued to grow her horrid-smelling plants in the dorm room. As a result, Victoire went to see Madam Eldridge in the hospital wing a couple weeks into the semester to ask about nose-numbing potion or something. Instead, Madam Eldridge gave her a set of nose plugs that she could wear in the dorm without damaging her health. She even took two more sets for Kara and Brianna. It made their voices sound a little funny when they talked, but at least they didn't have to smell the awful stench.

Meanwhile, classes were going well. Brianna had taken a special liking to Transfiguration while Kara and Victoire had decided that school was meant to be endured, not enjoyed. Victoire wrote her family often, making sure to fulfill her promise to her younger siblings to write individual letters to them as well. All in all, her first month at Hogwarts was shaping up to be a very good one.


	2. October

Chapter 2: October 2011

The first Monday of the second week of October was quite an exciting week for the first years. They would be brewing their very first potions. It was just a simple forgetfulness potion, but Victoire was quite excited about it. Professor Abbott-Longbottom had been preparing them since the start of term, so Victoire felt very ready to test out her brand-new cauldron.

"This is going to be so much fun!" Brianna exclaimed.

"I hope mine doesn't explode," Kara muttered.

"It won't, don't worry," Victoire assured her. "If anything, it'll just turn to sludge. My Uncle George says that the worst that can happen to a forgetfulness potion. He would know, he's made every mistake in the book. It's how he managed to develop all his products."

"Alright everyone, settle down," Professor Abbott-Longbottom called out as they all filed in and took their seats. "Now remember how I told you that you were going to be brewing your potions in pairs?" Victoire did remember. In fact, it was the one thing that had been worrying her about this lesson. Was she supposed to work with Kara or Brianna? And if they chose to work together, then who was Victoire supposed to work with? "Well I've decided that the pairs are going to be drawn randomly from this hat." Victoire let out a sigh of relief. At least she didn't have to worry about it. She would be assigned a partner and that would be that. She hoped it was either Kara or Brianna, but really it didn't matter too much who she was paired with. It wasn't like she had made any mortal enemies yet.

"Aww man," Victoire heard Kara mutter under her breath. "Just watch me get stuck with some Slytherin loser."

Victoire rolled her eyes at her friend and then focused her attention on their Professor, who was picking the first pair of names.

"Damian Roper and… Kara Jensen," Professor Abbott-Longbottom announced.

Kara grimaced. "I knew this was going to happen," she muttered, letting her head fall into her hands.

"Joe Sanders and… May Enlow," the next pair was announced.

Victoire waited nervously as pair after pair was called. Caitlin got paired with Cameron Philbrick. Brianna got paired with a girl in Ravenclaw named Amelia Townsend. Ellie Sawbridge got paired with a Hufflepuff by the name William Shimpling. When Victoire's name was called, there were very few people left who hadn't been called and Victoire hoped to Merlin she got paired with someone good.

"Victoire Weasley and… Raina Hudson," the Professor announced.

Kara started chuckling as Victoire dropped her head to the potions table. "Guess I didn't get the worst partner after all," she smirked. "Good luck with the plant-whisperer over there."

Victoire rolled her eyes at her friend as the last few pairs were called and then reluctantly made some room for Raina as the girl began to come over to join her at her bench.

"Pretty lucky that we got paired up, huh?" Raina said, spreading her things out. Almost immediately, Victoire wished her nose plugs weren't back up in the dorm, because she could smell the fertilizer on Raina, as though it had become part of her natural scent.

"Yeah, really lucky," Victoire agreed sarcastically. Thankfully, Raina didn't pick up on the sarcasm and instead started setting up their station. "I'll go get the ingredients," Victoire volunteered, willing do anything to get a few seconds away from the smell.

She hurried into the storeroom and started looking around for the things she would need. Lethe river water for sure… valerian root… some lavender sprigs…

"Hey," Brianna's voice whispered as her friend joined her to pick out ingredients. "How're you doing?"

"She reeks!" Victoire exclaimed, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "It's like she's got some on her robes or something. Has she always smelled this bad, or am I just crazy?"

"I dunno," Brianna shrugged. "I mean, we've been around her in classes and stuff and it's never been a problem. Maybe she forgot to shower this morning or something."

"Yeah, maybe," Victoire agreed, grabbing the last ingredient she needed. "Well, I guess I'd better get back. At least it only takes an hour to brew the potion."

"Good luck," Brianna said as Victoire returned to the classroom with ingredients in hand.

"Alright, here's everything we need," Victoire said, spreading the stuff out on their bench.

"Alright, I'll get started chopping up the valerian. Why don't you crush up the lavender?" Raina suggested.

Victoire agreed and set to work. After about forty-five minutes of work, their potion was looking very nice.

"Alright," Raina muttered, consulting her textbook. "Now we add two more drops of the lethe river water and then we just need to add the mistletoe berries and let it simmer for a bit."

"Oh shoot!" Victoire exclaimed in frustration. "I forgot the mistletoe berries! Hang on, I'll be right back."

Victoire hurried into the storeroom and began scanning the shelves for the last ingredient. It was only her first day in here, so she didn't know where everything was kept yet and had to scan the labels slowly. If only Professor Abbott-Longbottom had alphabetized things in here. According to her father, Professor Snape had always kept his storeroom alphabetized for simplicity.

"There it is!" Victoire exclaimed, seeing it on the second shelf. She reached for it and was about to grab four when suddenly, a loud explosion sounded from the classroom. Hurrying to the door, Victoire peeked out, curious as to what had happened.

"Raina!" she cried out in surprise when she was that it was their cauldron that had exploded. "What happened?" Forgetfulness potions weren't supposed to explode – that's one of the reasons it was always the first one the first years were taught; less danger on their first time brewing.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know that was going to happen!" Raina apologized. "I just thought it couldn't hurt. It works so well for my plants, and I was curious if it would work for potions too."

"Curious about what?" Professor Abbott-Longbottom asked, coming down from the front to peer into the remains of what had been Victoire's brand-new cauldron.

"My special fertilizer," Raina explained. "I just thought I'd add a little bit and see what would happen. I figured the worst would be the potion just wouldn't work."

"Oh my God, seriously?" Victoire cried out angrily. "You added your dumb fertilizer to our potion? You could have blown up half the school for all you know!"

"Victoire's right," the Professor said. "It's extremely dangerous to add ingredients that aren't in the recipe to potions. Especially when you don't fully understand the effects that different ingredients can have on each other. I'm going to have to give you a detention."

"What?" Raina cried. "Can't you just dock points or something?"

"Seriously?" Kara called from across the room. "You want to be known as the first year that lost Gryffindor a bunch of points for throwing fertilizer into her cauldron."

"I'm sorry," Professor Abbott-Longbottom said, "but I think a detention is the best punishment here. You can help me clean up this mess." Raina hung her head. "And if I ever catch you with fertilizer in this room again, you'll be getting more than an evening's detention," the Professor warned, returning to the front of the class.

"Um, Professor?" Victoire asked, raising her hand timidly. "What about my grade? The potion's basically ruined now and there's not enough time in the lesson to brew another one."

Professor Abbott-Longbottom sighed. "I suppose the two of you could write papers about the steps you took, how you would have finished, and what went wrong.

Victoire nodded and then glared at Raina in frustration. Not only had she ruined their potion, but now Victoire had an extra essay to write on top of all her other homework.

"Hey, listen, I'm really sorry. If you want, we could work on the assignment togeth – "

"You owe me a new cauldron," Victoire cut the girl off. "Mine was pewter, standard size two, collapsible, and it came with a self-stirring rod."

Raina nodded. "I'll owl my parents tonight and have them deliver it straight to you. I'm sure you'll have it before we brew our next potion next month."

"Good," Victoire said shortly, grabbing her things and stalking off to an empty bench at the back where she could get started on her essay away from all the mess.

VvVvVvVvVvV

"I can't believe her!" Victoire exclaimed later in the common room as she attempted to finish her essay for Professor Abbott-Longbottom. "I could be doing something fun right now and instead I'm stuck in here writing about how fertilizer and partially-brewed forgetfulness potion don't mix."

"Really?" Kara asked, looking up from her Herbology essay. "What exactly would you be doing right now, besides your other homework?"

Victoire shrugged. "I could be reading this month's _Teen Witch_ ," she pointed out.

"Ooh, I have it upstairs, do you want me to get it?" Brianna asked.

"No!" Kara said, scolding her. "Victoire needs to write her potions essay so that she can get back on schedule with us and get her Herbology assignment out of the way."

"Right," Brianna agreed. "Hey, does anyone know what the properties of bouncing bulbs are?"

Victoire shrugged. "I'm still stuck on potions," she mumbled grumpily.

"And that is why you need to finish and get to work on Herbology. We can't help each other if we're working on different things," Kara said.

"Can I just write that Raina ruined our potion and leave it at that?" Victoire whined. "Why do I have to understand what went wrong? It's not like I would ever throw fertilizer in a potion. Raina's the one who doesn't understand."

"I don't know if that was necessarily the point of the assignment," Brianna said hesitantly.

Victoire sighed and was about to open her potions book up again when Teddy and Billy came through the portrait hole.

"Hey! Teddy!" Victoire called out, waving him over. "Teddy, I have a question."

"What's up?" he asked, coming over and pulling up a chair while Billy continued up to their dorm.

"So I got paired with Raina for our first potions project – "

"Oh yeah, that was today huh?" Teddy said with a smile. "So how was it, did you have fun?"

Victoire rolled her eyes. "Well it would have been fine, except she threw her weird homemade fertilizer in the cauldron and it exploded and now I have to write an essay about what went wrong. How am I supposed to write about what went wrong when I don't even know what's in the fertilizer?"

Teddy frowned. "She managed to make a forgetfulness potion explode?" he asked.

"Yeah," Victoire nodded.

"Well then there must have been fluxweed in the fertilizer," Teddy declared.

"How do you know that?" Victoire asked in awe.

"Fluxweed and lethe river water are two ingredients you do not want to put together. Alone they're harmless, but together, they can be destructive. You're lucky she threw the fertilizer in before the second dose of the lethe river water or else you may have destroyed the whole classroom," Teddy said.

"She was just about to put two more drops in when I left," Victoire gasped. "Imagine if she'd done that first!"

"That would have been a disaster!" Kara exclaimed.

"So what are you girls up to?" Teddy asked, peering at Kara and Brianna's parchment.

"Just writing a Herbology essay," Brianna informed him.

"What about you?" Victoire asked.

"Me and Billy and working on our Halloween costumes," Teddy announced.

"Halloween costumes?" Victoire gasped in surprise. "But I didn't know we were supposed to wear costumes! My father never mentioned that in all his stories about Hogwarts."

"Well that's because it's a relatively new tradition. Started only a few years before I got here," Teddy explained. "But don't worry, you have plenty of time before Halloween to come up with something good."

As soon as Teddy had left to work on his costume with Billy, the girls started panicking.

"What are we going to do?" Brianna cried. "Halloween is only two weeks away! We'll never come up with a good costume in time!"

"What are we even supposed to use to make the costumes?" Kara asked. "It's not like there's a Halloween supply store downstairs, and we can't go to Hogsmeade this weekend with the older students because we're only first years."

"I'm going to write my mum," Victoire decided. "She's a genius about these sorts of things. She'll figure something out."

"Do you think she would help us out too?" Brianna wondered.

"I'll ask her," Victoire promised, pulling up a fresh piece of parchment and dipping her quill into her ink.

 _Chère maman_ ,

 _Teddy has just informed me that we are meant to wear Halloween costumes, and I find myself at a loss for what to do. All I have are my robes and a few Muggle clothes, none of which would be appropriate as a costume. My friends, Kara and Brianna, are also panicking as we only have two weeks to figure something out. Can you think of anything we can do? I would hate to be the only three in the whole school not dressed up for Halloween!_

 _Victoire_

"There," Victoire announced, folding the letter up. "Now we just have to wait a few days to see what she says."

"I hope she comes up with something good," Kara said worriedly.

"Oh, don't worry, she will," Victoire assured her.

As it turned out, they didn't have to wait long for a reply. At dinner the following evening, the school owl Victoire had borrowed flew into the great hall with a letter from her mother tied to it's leg.

"What does it say? What does it say?" Kara exclaimed eagerly.

Victoire unrolled the letter and read it aloud.

 _Ma chère Victoire,_

 _I am so excited to hear about this new Hogwarts tradition of dressing up. I would love to make costumes for you and your friends, thank you so much for asking! I will not tell you what they are going to be, let us keep that as a secret. I will try to have them to you no later than the 28_ _th_ _in case you need to send them back for adjustments._

 _Je t'aime,_

 _Maman_

"Oh my gosh, this is going to be so great!" Victoire exclaimed upon finishing the letter. " _Maman_ makes the best clothes and she has the best taste. We are going to look fabulous!"

"She's really going to make costumes for all of us?" Kara gasped in surprise. "That's so nice of her."

"That's _maman_ ," Victoire smiled, folding up the letter and shoving it into her bag. "I wonder what the costumes will be…"

VvVvVvVvVvV

The next week was like torture for the three girls, wondering what Fleur was going to come up with and hoping it would come in time for Halloween. When finally, on the 28th, the large package arrived, they could hardly contain their excitement.

"Your mother is a genius!" Brianna exclaimed, trying on her costume to discover that it fit perfectly. "I can't believe she made all these in a week."

"Where did she find time to do all this?" Kara wondered.

"She probably sent Dominique and Louis off to play with the cousins some days so that she could focus. Aunt Audrey loves having us around and Molly is right in between Dominique and Louis' ages, so it's perfect," Victoire said.

Soon Halloween day arrived. The three girls rose early so get started with their hair and makeup; Victoire's mother had sent them supplies for that as well. When Caitlin and Raina finally woke up and came into the bathroom, they stopped short, sending the girls questioning looks.

"What are you doing?" Caitlin asked disdainfully.

"Getting ourselves ready for Halloween of course," Brianna informed her.

"I don't think you're supposed to dress up for classes," Raina said hesitantly.

"What do you know?" Victoire shot at the girl. "You still haven't even replaced my cauldron. Besides, my friend Teddy told me all about Halloween and how everyone dresses up all day. He's a third year, so he knows."

"Alright fine, do what you want," Raina held her hands up in surrender, clearly not wanting to fight this soon after waking up. "And I told you yesterday, the cauldron is ordered, so it should be here really soon, I promise."

"Come on Victoire, give Raina a break," Caitlin insisted. "She's apologized a thousand times and you're just being mean about it."

"Well if she weren't such a Flob, maybe she wouldn't have destroyed my cauldron in the first place," Victoire retorted.

"What's a Flob?" Raina asked.

"Only a Flob would have to ask that," Victoire sneered. She didn't know why she was being so mean to Raina, but it felt good being superior to the smelly girl.

"Okay, whatever," Caitlin shook her head. "Come on Raina, we can get dressed in the dorm."

"Hey Vic?" Kara ventured once the other girls were gone. "What is a Flob?"

"It's short for Flobberworm," Victoire explained. "Because Raina is just like a Flobberworm; useless and gross."

"Nice one," Brianna smirked.

"Here, let me help you with the sparkles," Victoire offered reaching her hand over to wipe the large clump off her friend's face.

When the three girls entered the Great Hall, they knew immediately that something had gone wrong. Everyone except for them was eating breakfast in their robes.

"And what are you supposed to be?" a second year from the Slytherin table called out mockingly to them.

"For your information, we are mermaids," Victoire countered, trying to sound tough while she scanned the room for Teddy. What was going on? Why wasn't everyone dressed up?

"That's not what merpeople look like," the Slytherin called back. "Merpeople are supposed to be all ugly and scaly."

"Oh my gosh! Vic?"

Victoire spun around and dragged Teddy out into the Entrance Hall where there would be less eyes watching them.

"What is wrong with you?" she demanded, punching him in the arm.

"Whoa, whoa! What did I do?" Teddy cried in alarm.

"You told us we were supposed to dress up for Halloween!" Victoire exclaimed.

"Yeah, for the Halloween Inter-House party tonight, not for morning classes!" Teddy said, hiding a smile.

"Well you didn't mention that!" Victoire yelled, punching him in the arm again. "Now we look like complete and utter fools!"

"No you don't," Teddy said. "I actually think your costumes are great actually. Let me guess; your mother made them?"

"You guessed right," Victoire said, leaning back on her heels and crossing her arms to show that she was still upset.

"Well you look fantastic," he said. "All three of you," he added, looking behind Victoire at Kara and Brianna. "Did you color your hair?" he asked.

"Nah, they're just detachable extensions," Victoire said, pulling one out to demonstrate. " _Maman_ sent them over with the costumes."

"So now what are we supposed to do?" Kara grumbled. "Take them off and then put them back on all over again tonight before the party?"

"No time," Teddy said, pointing to his watch. "Your first class is in ten minutes."

"Oh no!" Victoire exclaimed. "Teddy, you are going to pay for this!" she cried as she began to run. They had Transfiguration first thing and it was all the way across the castle.

"But I didn't do anything!" Teddy called out after them.

The rest of the day was a nightmare. The minute they walked into Transfiguration, everyone started laughing at them. Raina was looking extremely smug, which annoyed Victoire to no end, and all three of them got docked points for coming to class out of uniform.

When they finally got out of their last class, none of them was very much in the mood for a party.

"I say we just stay up in the common room," Victoire muttered. "I'm not hungry anyway."

"I'm with Vic," Kara agreed.

"Yeah," Brianna nodded. "I'm tired of being made fun of."

"I'm so mad at Teddy," Victoire seethed. "These were such great costumes and we ruined them by putting them on too early."

"Come on then, let's take them off. That alone could take over an hour with all the sparkles everywhere," Brianna sighed.

Two hours later, the girls were cleaned up and sitting around the fireplace in the common room in their pyjamas playing exploding snap. It was nice actually, having the entire common room to themselves. There were a couple fourth years at the back studying, but apart from them, they were alone. It was so rare for first years to get prime spots in the common room, and they were having so much fun, that Victoire had almost forgiven Teddy for what he'd done – almost.

"What do you think?" Kara asked. "One more round before we turn in?"

"You're on!" Victoire agreed, shuffling the deck and dealing out the cards.

Just then, the portrait hole opened and Teddy crawled through, his arms laden with sweets.

"Teddy, what are you doing back? The party's not over for another half-hour," Victoire said.

"I noticed you weren't down there, so I figured you were holed up in the common room. I thought you might be hungry," he laid the sweets out on the side table and gestured towards them, indicating that the girls should partake.

"You thought we might be hungry so you brought us candy and pastries?" Victoire challenged. "Not a very hearty dinner, now is it?"

"Hey, I did my best," Teddy said defensively. "But it would've been pretty hard to carry a pot of stew all the way up here."

"Alright fine," Victoire said. "You're forgiven."

"For bringing sweets or for being unclear about the costumes?" Teddy wondered.

"Both, I guess," Victoire shrugged, grabbing a pastry and shoving it into her mouth. "Yup, definitely both," she added once she'd swallowed.

"Great!" Teddy said with a smile. "So do you guys think you might want to come down for the last bit of the party then?"

"Nah, we're actually having a lot of fun up here," Victoire said. "Plus, we're kind of in our pyjamas. Not the best costumes really. You should go back though. Enjoy your life."

"You sure?" he asked, already getting up and backing away. "I wouldn't want to leave if you were still upset or anything."

Victoire rolled her eyes. Clearly he wanted to go. "Get out of here," she cried. "We're totally fine."

"Thanks," Teddy smiled, backing out of the common room and shutting the portrait hole behind him.

"Gosh, this was really nice of Teddy," Kara said through a mouthful of chocolate. "I wonder why he went to all this trouble."

"I think he's taking the whole 'watch out for Victoire' thing a little too seriously," Victoire chuckled, grabbing another pastry from the table. "My father asked Uncle Harry to ask him to make sure my first year went smoothly and everything."

"Well I, for one, am definitely grateful," Brianna announced between bites of a cauldron cake. "Because I was starting to get hungry and this food is delicious."

They didn't end up eating all of the food, deciding to just leave it in the common room for whoever might want some. The girls made sure to get upstairs before everyone started returning and climbed into bed before either Caitlin or Raina could come in and make fun of them any more. Victoire was sure she would have nightmares that night of being laughed at and mocked, but instead, she had good dreams of being with her friends and having a good time.


	3. November

Chapter 3: November 2011

About mid-way through November, Hogwarts experienced it's first snowfall. It was just a light dusting over the grounds – not enough to elicit a school-wide snowball fight or anything, but Victoire thought it was absolutely beautiful. She insisted, much to their dismay, that Kara and Brianna go for walks outside almost everyday with her and admire the beauty of the coming winter.

The only downfall was that it was getting colder too, which meant gloves and scarves, and when it was really cold even hats. Victoire despised hats because they messed her hair up.

"I can't believe Professor Leftbridge would assign us such a long assignment," Brianna grumbled as they made their way back to the common room. "It's going to take _all weekend_."

"Defence is such a dumb subject," Kara agreed. "I mean; it's not like we're in the middle of a war. Nobody's running around attacking people anymore, and if I don't want to be an Auror, then when am I really going to use it?"

"I'm with you," Victoire agreed. "And I mean, this assignment? If I were facing a Death Eater or something, I definitely wouldn't use the curse of the bogies as my first offensive attack. What's it going to do? Give him a runny nose and a headache? That's not going to stop anyone."

" _Snozzcumber_ ," Kara muttered at the Fat Lady when they reached the portrait hole.

"I'm sorry," the Fat Lady said. "That is incorrect."

"What? That was the password this morning," Kara disagreed.

"And I'm afraid the password changed at noon," the Fat Lady said. "If nobody informed you then there's really nothing I can do about it."

"Oh no!" Brianna exclaimed.

"What?" Victoire asked.

"There was a notice on the bulletin board last night. I thought it was just another Quidditch practice rescheduled, but it must have been the password notice," Brianna explained.

"So you didn't see what it said?" Kara asked, dismayed.

"I'm sorry," Brianna hung her head.

"Well then how are we going to get inside?" Victoire wondered.

"I guess we'll have to find a prefect or something," Kara declared. "Come on, there's got to be someone around."

The girls retreated and began searching the corridors. Apart from coming up to Gryffindor Tower, they hadn't spent all that much time exploring the seventh floor. There were tons of empty classrooms that seemed to be in complete disuse. Victoire wondered if they had ever used them, or whether they were just there.

"It's useless," Brianna sighed. "We might as well just go back down to the Great Hall because nobody's going to be up here in an abandoned classroom."

"One more room," Victoire pleaded. "Come on, I don't want to go all the way back down and then up again if we can avoid it."

"Fine, last door," Brianna agreed, pushing the door in question open and stepping in.

"Nobody," Kara sighed when they found themselves yet again in a room full of toppled chairs and spare parchment littering the tables.

"Alright, I guess we can go down – "

Victoire stopped short when she turned around and came face to face with Peeves, the Hogwarts poltergeist.

"Oooh, ickle firsties!" he squealed excitedly. "Are the ickle firsties lost?"

"We're not lost, we were just trying to find someone," Victoire replied, trying to push past him. Unfortunately, he was taking up the entire doorway.

"Who was you trying to find?" Peeves asked curiously.

"Nobody special," Victoire said, still trying to get around him.

"Well you has found me!" Peeves exclaimed in excitement. "Now we can play!"

"No thank you, we don't want to play," Victoire told him. "If you wouldn't mind just moving aside, then we can be on our – "

"Ickle firsties stay and play!" Peeves exclaimed, slamming the door shut behind him.

Victoire stepped back nervously while Kara and Brianna stayed behind her.

"Ickle firsties come and play. Ickle firsties here today. You can either play with me, or very sorry you will be!" Peeves sang at them.

"I'm very sorry, but we really can't play today, we have a ton of homework to do and if we don't get started we'll never finish," Victoire insisted.

"Vic, maybe we should just – " Kara began to whisper from behind. Unfortunately, it was too late. Victoire's words had angered the poltergeist.

"Ickle firsties, you'll be sorry!" he cried, lifting up a desk and throwing it through the window.

"Oh no!" Victoire exclaimed, running over to the window and peering through the shattered glass. The desk had fallen right in the middle of the transfiguration courtyard. It didn't seem to have landed on anybody, but it did seem to have crushed a bench. "Peeves, what have you done?" she cried.

"Not me," Peeves cried gleefully. "All you."

He opened the door again and gleefully sailed down the hallway, bouncing along as he went, singing his little song.

"We've got to get out of here," Brianna said, realizing the situation they were in.

They spun around to find Mrs. Norris sitting in the doorway.

"Oh no, we're too late," Kara said, terrified.

"What have we here?" a wheezing old voice asked. Mr. Filch hobbled into view, the last few strands of his long gray hair left hanging down around his face. "Thrown a desk out a window, have you? That'll be detention for the lot of you."

"It wasn't us!" Brianna insisted. "It was Peeves!"

"Peeves was it?" Mr. Filch said suspiciously. "Well then tell me girl, where is Peeves now?"

"Well, he left, Sir," Brianna replied.

"Without me seeing 'im?" Filch asked. "I think not. You lot are coming with me to see your Head of House."

Reluctantly, the girls traipsed after Mr. Filch, following him down to Professor Longbottom's office.

"Professor," Filch said, knocking on the door. "I have found the little miscreants who threw the desk from the seventh-floor window."

"Professor Longbottom, I swear, it wasn't us, it was Peeves," Victoire insisted, hoping that if Filch wouldn't listen then at least maybe Professor Longbottom would believe them.

"Is this true?" the Professor asked, looking at Filch for confirmation.

"I know of no such thing," Filch said. "I was there almost right after it happened, and there was no Peeves to be seen."

"He left as soon as he'd done it!" Victoire cried. "He wanted us to get in trouble. He did it on purpose!"

"Lies!" Filch hissed. "You first years are always causing trouble."

"Thank you, Mr. Filch," Professor Longbottom said. "I can take it from here."

With a smile and something nasty whispered under his breath, Filch turned and left, probably off to find more students to get in trouble instead of doing his job and actually cleaning the castle.

"Why don't you three sit down?" Professor Longbottom suggested.

The girls obediently took their seats and waited for their Professor to say something.

"A desk was thrown out of a seventh-floor window," he finally said. "And the three of you were found in the room where it was thrown only moments after it happened. Have I said anything wrong yet?"

"No," Victoire admitted.

"You see how this looks, don't you?" Professor Longbottom asked. "Now personally, I don't see why a trio of first year girls would want to throw a desk out a window, but – "

"That's just it, we didn't!" Kara exclaimed.

Professor Longbottom held up a hand. "But the facts remain the same and all the evidence points to you. I'm afraid you're going to have to be held responsible, unless you can prove for a fact that it was Peeves who threw the desk."

The girls looked back and forth amongst each other. Of course Peeves had thrown the table, but how could they prove it? It's not like poltergeists left fingerprints, and Victoire was pretty sure she'd touched the table before Peeves had entered the room.

"Well then I'm afraid I'm going to have to give you girls detention tonight," their Professor said. "You'll be cleaning up the mess you've made in the transfiguration courtyard, supervised by Mr. Filch."

"Oh no, not Filch!" Kara exclaimed.

"You will report to him in the courtyard at 7PM," he informed them.

"But it's a Friday night," Brianna complained.

"And the perfect weather for picking up splinters," Professor Longbottom countered.

"Alright," the girls agreed reluctantly. There was nothing else to do. They would have to serve the detention, unless they could somehow prove they were innocent.

"Oh, Professor Longbottom?" Kara asked as they were about to leave his office. "What's the password to Gryffindor Tower? We seem to be under-informed about the password-changing schedule."

"It's _billywig_ ," their Head of House told them.

"Thanks," Kara returned with a smile.

They returned to the common room about ten minutes later and started working on their Defence assignments. They had to get a move on it, because they were going to lose an entire night's work serving their detentions.

"So I heard you threw a desk out of a seventh-story window," Teddy said, sitting down with them at the table they had nabbed at the back of the room.

"We didn't, Filch just thought we did," Victoire informed him.

"And why might Filch think something like that?" Teddy asked.

"Well, he might have found us in the room it was thrown from minutes after it happened," Victoire confessed.

"And what, pray tell, were you doing there?" Teddy wondered.

"Well we went in there looking for someone who knew the new password," Victoire explained. "And then Peeves showed up and did it and he framed us for it."

"Oh Peeves," Teddy smiled. "The Hogwarts student's favorite excuse."

"It's not an excuse, he really did throw the desk," Victoire insisted.

"Mmhmm," Teddy hummed, nodding his head.

"So I heard you girls threw a desk out a window," Billy Carmichael said sitting down with them all, a huge grin on his face.

"Oh no, actually, it turns out it was actually Peeves," Teddy said, turning to face his friend.

"Oh, of course. It was Peeves!" Billy cried. Their tones of voices were clear in showing that they didn't believe a word Victoire was saying.

"It was, it really was!" Victoire insisted. "I can't prove it, but it's true!"

"What will your mother say?" Billy cried jokingly.

Victoire froze and grew extremely pale. What _would_ her mother say when she heard about this? She wasn't going to be happy, that was for sure. She might send a howler though. If she sent a howler, Victoire thought she might just die.

"Relax, I'm just joking," Billy said.

"But you're right," Victoire said. "Professor Longbottom has probably already owled my parents. He's a friend of the family, so he wouldn't waste a second. Ohhh, _maman_ is going to be so upset with me."

"Hey, don't worry about it," Teddy reassured her. "Everyone gets in trouble sometimes. I'm sure your mother got up to her fair share of mischief back at Beauxbatons. And what about your uncles? From the stories I've heard, Uncle George used to get in trouble on a weekly basis, and Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron were always doing things they weren't supposed to."

"Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron were saving the world," Victoire countered. "And _maman_ doesn't like Uncle George all that much."

"Well then I guess you'll just have to tell her the wonderful cover story you used on us," Teddy said with a smirk.

"It was not a cover story," Victoire cried, shoving Teddy's shoulder so that he almost fell off his chair. "Peeves really did do it! Why would we throw a desk out a window?"

"I don't know," Teddy said. "For a laugh?"

"Well I'm not laughing," Victoire frowned.

"Oh, we've got to get going," Kara said, noting the time. It was ten to eight and they were a long way from the transfiguration courtyard.

Victoire checked the time and hurriedly began packing her things, throwing them into her bag haphazardly.

"Have fun in your first detention!" Teddy called out after them as they hurried off, not wanting to get in any more trouble for being late.

Mr. Filch was extremely pleased to see them when they arrived for their detention. There was a large cart next to the wreckage clearly designated for the debris to be thrown into and three rakes for raking up the smaller pieces that would be harder to pick up individually.

"Now remember, no magic," Mr. Filch instructed, setting up a folding chair on the grass a few feet away and settling down in it to watch.

The girls grumbled when they saw how big of a mess there really was to clean up. It was so unfair. They hadn't even done it, and they were stuck cleaning it up. And it would take like, five seconds to clean this up with magic.

"Where do we even start?" Brianna wondered.

"I guess we should start by moving the bigger pieces," Victoire decided. "We'll probably need all three of us to lift the really big ones."

Rolling up their sleeves, the girls got to work. About two hours later, they were sweaty and exhausted and raking up the last of the splinters.

"Alright girls, good job," Professor Longbottom said, emerging from inside his office. He waved his wand and the last of the splinters sailed into a nearby garbage can. "That's enough, you've served your detention for tonight, you can go back to your common room."

"But they've only been here two hours," Filch complained. "Should've they be made to do more cleaning?"

"I think two hours is plenty long enough for a few first years," Professor Longbottom declared. "Go on now," he added to the girls, who eagerly grabbed their things and hurried away before Filch could convince their Head of House to make them stay any longer.

"Where have you all been?" Caitlin asked when they returned to their dorm.

"Yeah, and why do you stink?" Raina asked, plugging her nose.

"We had detention," Brianna explained. "Undeserved detention, but detention all the same."

"I bet you did deserve it," Raina shot back at them.

"Hey, you know what – "

"Bri, just let it go," Kara said, shaking her head. "I'm too exhausted to argue tonight."

"I just want to shower," Victoire groaned, realizing that she did in fact smell so bad that she hadn't noticed the smell of Raina's fertilizer yet.

"Me too," Brianna agreed.

"Well whatever you did, I hope you learned your lesson!" Caitlin yelled after them as the three of them trooped into the bathroom to clean themselves up.

"I really hate our roommates," Brianna muttered once the door swung shut behind them.

VvVvVvVvVvV

"To be fair, I think our roommates also hate us," Victoire pointed out.

The next morning started out fine. It was a Saturday, so Victoire got to sleep in a bit. When she awoke, Raina and Caitlin had already left, which meant that she didn't have to tiptoe around them or anything as she got dressed and ready for the day.

When they were all ready, Victoire, Kara, and Brianna headed down to the Great Hall for lunch (they had missed breakfast) and were happily eating when an owl flew into the Hall and landed right in front of Victoire.

"Oh no!" Victoire said, seeing what was attached to the owl's leg. "Oh no!"

"You've got to open it," Kara said. "You know it'll be worse if you don't."

Victoire knew her friend was right, so she reluctantly reached forward, untied the letter from the owl's leg and waited until it had flown away before carefully breaking the seal and unfolding the letter. Immediately, her mother's voice began to scream in French.

 _"Victoire Delacour-Weasley, je ne sais pas quoi dire. Comment est-ce-que vous pourriez faire quelque-chose comme cela? Je suis furieuse. Un bureau jeté à travers une fenêtre! Mon dieu, c'est fou! Qu'est-ce que vous avez pensez? Avez-vous pensez que ce serait drole? Ce n'est pas drole, ma fille, pas drole du tout! J'avais pensez que vous était plus intelligent que ça. Évidemment ce n'est pas le cas. Je suis très déçu ma fille, très déçu."_

There was utter silence in the Hall for a moment, and then slowly conversation started up again.

"Well at least nobody understood it," Kara said optimistically.

"Maybe not, but I think they got the gist of it," Victoire sighed. "The tone of voice was pretty clear. Who cares what it said?"

"What did it say anyway?" Brianna wondered.

Victoire shot her a look.

"Sorry, I was just curious. I don't speak French, you know," she said.

"Basically that she's disappointed and thought I was better than this," Victoire sighed.

"I'm sure she'll understand when you explain it to her," Kara said soothingly.

"Right, because that's gone s well the past few times we've tried," Victoire muttered. "Why bother? She'll believe what she wants to believe."

As Victoire moodily stabbed her fork through some potatoes, two more owls swooped down, landing in front of Kara and Brianna.

"Oh no," Kara groaned, taking her letter and holding it in front of her like it was going to explode – which unlike Victoire's letter, it wouldn't.

"It's not like it's a Howler," Victoire muttered jealously. "Just go ahead and read it."

By then, Brianna had already read hers and was ripping it up, throwing the bits into her goblet of pumpkin juice. While Kara read her letter, Victoire turned to Brianna with questioning eyes.

"It was from my dad," Brianna said. "No big deal. It's what I figured he would say."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Victoire offered, sensing that Brianna's mood had drastically changed in a matter of seconds.

"Not really," Brianna muttered. "So Kara, what's the damage?"

"Let's see… shocked to discover that you were so immature… thought we raised you better than this… grounded the minute I get home for Christmas break," Kara read. "Well, I'm doomed."

"You're not doomed," Victoire assured her. "By the time Christmas break comes around, they'll have forgotten all about this. You'll be fine. You won't be seeing them for like, a month."

"Yeah, you're right," Kara agreed. "This will all blow over by then I'm sure."

"Exactly," Victoire said. "I mean, look around, everyone here has already forgotten about it and it only happened yesterday."

Kara glanced around the room and her eyes fell on Caitlin and Raina who were having lunch at the other end of the table. Victoire followed her line of sight just as Caitlin caught their eye and started whispering to Raina.

"Well, almost everyone," Victoire corrected herself.

"Let's change the subject," Brianna suggested. "Have either of you read this month's _Teen Witch_ article about magical hair straightening techniques?"

Later that night, after Kara and Brianna had gone up to bed, Victoire stayed down in the common room to compose a letter to her sister. It had been a while, and she had promised after all.

 _Dominique,_

 _I'm sorry I let it go this long without writing you. I know I promised once a week at least, but it's a lot more difficult to keep to that kind of schedule when the Professors are piling on the homework day in and day out. I'll have to talk to Teddy about seeing if he can convince his grandmother to give us less homework on the weekends – I think he's having dinner with her in her quarters tomorrow night._

 _I'm sure you've heard by now what's happened from maman or papa. Let me just start by saying it was not me. Why would I throw a desk out a window? What could I possibly have to gain from something like that? Anyway, I don't know if you remember hearing stories about Peeves, the Hogwarts poltergeist? Uncle George has loads of stories, so if you don't remember, you should ask him about them the next time you see him. But back to my point – it was all his fault. He was mad we didn't have time to play with him, so he threw the desk and framed us for it. I can't believe the staff fell for it, I mean, from what I've heard he pulls stuff like this all the time. Even Teddy didn't believe me when I told him the truth._

 _Nothing much else is going on here. Raina still smells and Caitlin still has a bad attitude. Thank Merlin Kara and Brianna are in the dorm with me. If I'd been stuck alone with those two I don't know what I would have done. I think it's official now that they hate us. It's going to be a fun seven years with them._

 _Victoire_


	4. December

Chapter 4: December 2011

Victoire awoke early December first to the sound of pecking at the window. Eagerly, she hurried to open it and let poor Errol the Third into the dorm. There were about ten letters still tied to his leg, so Victoire sorted through them, locating the one addressed to her and then sent Errol off to finish making his deliveries.

"What's going on?" Kara mumbled, still half asleep.

"Don't worry about it, it's just some mail from my grandmother. I'll tell you about it later," Victoire whispered so as not to wake the other girls.

Kara made a noise and then rolled back over, her light snoring starting up again moments later.

Excitedly, Victoire sat down on her bed and ripped open the envelope. It was a Weasley family tradition. The family had gotten so large over the years that one day, Grandma Weasley decided she was going to implement a new Christmas tradition – Secret Santa. This way, it wouldn't be too overwhelming for everyone to be trying to buy everyone a present every Christmas. They could still buy other presents for their immediate family or someone they were closer to of course, but this just made it easier at the big family gathering. Of course, everyone always got a Weasley jumper from Grandmother Weasley too – apparently she'd been doing that since her children had been born.

On December first of every year, a letter went out to every member of the family with the name of their Secret Santa for the year. The envelopes were charmed so that only the person they were designated for could open them. Last year, Victoire had gotten Roxanne, who'd only been two years old at the time. She'd bought her a stuffed dragon and she'd loved it.

As Victoire unfolded the parchment stuffed inside the envelope, she held her breath, hoping she got someone good and not Aunt Hermione, who only liked books. She opened the note and read the name: _Teddy Lupin_.

Victoire smiled. This was going to be fun.

VvVvVvVvVvV

"This is a disaster!" Victoire cried a couple days later up in the first year girls' dorm. " _Maman_ says that now I'm at Hogwarts she's not going to give me money to buy Christmas presents anymore and all I have left from chores and my birthday is five knuts. I can't buy anything for five knuts!"

"Come on, you can buy stuff for five knuts," Kara disagreed.

"Like what?" Victoire challenged.

"You could buy him a new quill," Kara suggested.

"Right, because all thirteen-year-old boys want a quill for Christmas," Victoire muttered sarcastically.

"What about buying him candy?" Brianna suggested. "Everyone likes candy."

"Yeah, but with five knuts, all I'd be able to afford is a chocolate frog and maybe a licorice wand. Some present," Victoire grumbled.

"Ooh! What about homemade coupons?" Kara suggested excitedly. "You know, they can be things like 'Victoire will write your potions essay' and stuff."

"I'm a first year," Victoire pointed out. "I don't think Teddy would want a first year writing his potions essay."

"Good point," Kara sighed.

"Okay, let's try this. What would you get Teddy if you could afford to buy him anything in the world?" Brianna asked.

"That's just it though Bri, I can't afford anything," Victoire said.

"I know, I know, but maybe this way if we know what kind of thing you would want to get him, we can come up with a cheaper version of it," Brianna said.

"Ooh, that's a good idea," Kara agreed.

"So, what would you get him?" Brianna repeated.

"Hmm," Victoire thought to herself. "Well ever since I can remember, he's always wanted an owl," she said. "But his grandmother never bought him one. She said since she already had one, it only made sense that they would share it."

"Okay, so an owl," Brianna mused.

"Yeah, but owls cost more than five knuts," Victoire pointed out.

"What if you found another way to pay for it?" Brianna suggested. "You could pay with free labor or something."

"It's not like I can just leave Hogwarts on the weekends to work in an owl emporium," Victoire pointed out.

"So don't buy the owl from an owl emporium," Brianna said.

"Where am I supposed to get an owl if not from an emporium?" Victoire asked.

"Hogwarts has owls," Brianna pointed out.

"Not for sale!" Victoire cried.

"Maybe not officially, but it couldn't hurt to ask," Brianna said.

"That's crazy!" Victoire exclaimed. "You want me to ask Headmistress McGonagall if I can have one of the school's owls in exchange for what, cleaning the owlery for a month?"

"You could always get him a quill," Brianna said.

Victoire sighed. "This is hopeless," she groaned, rolling over onto her bed and covering her head with her pillow.

VvVvVvVvVvV

The next day, after dinner, Victoire headed to the library to work on her Charms assignment. Kara and Brianna were going to meet her there in about twenty minutes, after they had fetched their things from the dorm. Victoire was supposed to get a head start on the research.

When Victoire walked into the library, she saw Teddy sitting at a table by the window all alone. It was the perfect opportunity to question him to see what he might want for Christmas this year. She walked over and sat down, casually taking out a book and pretending she was going to do some work of her own.

"Hey Teddy," she said.

"Oh, hey Victoire, what's up?" Teddy asked.

"We've got this big Charms assignment due next week," Victoire replied. "Kara and Brianna are on their way down to work on it with me. What about you?"

"Oh, just finishing up a rune translation," Teddy replied, showing his parchment to Victoire. It looked like complete gibberish to her, but that was probably because first years didn't take Ancient Runes.

"So Christmas is coming up," Victoire said as subtly as she could. She knew it wasn't all that subtle – she was terrible at that.

"Yeah, it is," Teddy agreed. "Hey, I got your dad for Secret Santa. Any idea what he might want?"

"How about an appointment for a haircut?" Victoire rolled her eyes. "Honestly, he is way too old to have hair down to his shoulders. It's like he thinks he's still in his twenties or something."

Teddy laughed. "Well as great an idea as that is, I'm going to keep thinking."

"If I ever get my dad, he's getting a pair of scissors in a gift bag," Victoire said.

"So who'd you get?" Teddy wondered.

Victoire spluttered. "I can't tell you!" she cried indignantly. "It's called _Secret_ Santa for a reason, you know."

"I just told you!" Teddy pointed out.

"Well I'm amazing at keeping secrets," Victoire said. "You on the other hand are likely to blab to this person five seconds after this conversation is over."

"Okay, if either of us is going to blab, we both know it would be you," Teddy contradicted her.

"Whatever, I'm still not telling," Victoire said, crossing her arms in a huff. She waited a few moments and then casually tried to bring the subject back again. "I wonder who got my name," she said.

"Who had you last year?" Teddy asked.

"Uncle George," Victoire smirked. "Remember, he got me that huge box of skiving snackboxes. Said it would come in useful when I started Hogwarts."

"Oh yeah," Teddy laughed. "So have you used any yet?" he asked.

"Nah," Victoire said. "What would even be the point? It's not like there's much to do in the middle of the day. Plus, I'd constantly have to be watching out for being caught by a Professor or something."

"Oh just you wait," Teddy smirked. "Soon you'll be skiving off classes left, right, and center."

"Have you ever skived off?" Victoire asked curiously.

"Twice," Teddy said proudly. "One time last year, me and Billy skived off together and snuck into the kitchens for an afternoon snack. Then we snuck into the library and ate in the back corner. We made such a mess, Madam Maxwell wouldn't let us back in for a month."

"And the other time?" Victoire asked.

"It was in first year," Teddy said, a little more subdued. "It was the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts. About halfway through the day, I just got so fed up with how everyone was joking around like it was any other day, so I took some nosebleed nougat to get out of transfiguration and snuck outside and just sat in front of the plaque on the wall by the front doors. I missed all my afternoon classes."

"I can't believe your grandmother believed your fake nosebleed," Victoire commented.

"I think she knew I'd taken the sweet," Teddy said. "But I think she knew I needed to be alone."

"Teddy I – "

"Oh no, it's fine," Teddy said, sensing the sympathetic tone. "Really, it's no big deal. I'm fine. It's good. I've got my grandmother, and I've got Uncle Harry and all the Weasleys. I have tons of family."

Victoire reached a hand out and wordlessly placed it on Teddy's shoulder. Teddy smiled sadly and they sat like that for a moment until Kara and Brianna bustled noisily into the library.

"Ready to work on Charms?" Kara asked loudly, resulting in a violent shushing from Madam Maxwell.

Teddy pushed his chair away and gathered his things together. "I was just leaving, but good luck to you all on the assignment," he said.

"Well he sure left quickly," Brianna said when he had left. "What were you talking about?"

"Nothing," Victoire said. "I think I've decided though. I'm going to get him that owl."

VvVvVvVvVvV

"You're asking for what?" Headmistress McGonagall asked that evening in her office.

"To buy one of the school's owls," Victoire repeated.

"And instead of actually paying, you want to…"

"Work off the cost of it, yes," Victoire confirmed.

"Wouldn't it be easier just to buy a new owl from an emporium?" the Headmistress asked.

"Probably, except that I don't have enough money right now, and by the time I made enough money to buy a new owl, Christmas would be long over," Victoire explained. "Please, this is really important."

The Headmistress considered Victoire for a moment.

"There are three Saturdays left before the end of term," she said. "If you want a school owl, you can spend each of those three Saturday mornings in the owlery with a mop and bucket. You'll report at 8AM and you'll work for four hours. Mr. Filch will supervise your work. At the end of the last Saturday you can have your pick of any school owl you would like."

Victoire jumped up excitedly. "Thank you so much Headmistress, this really means a lot to me," she smiled.

"Just don't go around advertising this," the Headmistress warned. "I would hate to have students lined up at my door tomorrow morning asking for the same favors."

"Absolutely not," Victoire assured her. "I won't tell anybody, I promise."

VvVvVvVvVvV

"She went for it!" Victoire exclaimed the minute she got back to her dorm.

"Seriously?" Kara asked excitedly.

"Seriously!" Victoire cried. "I just have to spend four hours cleaning the owlery for the next three Saturdays!"

"That's... gross," Brianna wrinkled her nose.

"True," Victoire agreed. "But it's the only way to get the owl."

"You're sure you want to do this?" Brianna asked, making sure. "You could always go with the candy."

"I'm positive," Victoire assured her. "I'm doing this."

VvVvVvVvVvV

"Merry Christmas!" Grandma Weasley exclaimed as Victoire picked herself up off the floor and brushed the ash from the fireplace off her shoulder.

"Merry Christmas Grandma!" Victoire exclaimed, letting her grandmother wrap her up in a huge bear hug.

Dominique came flying out the Floo next and Grandmother Weasley moved on to hug her next while Victoire ran over to her Grandfather who was sitting in an armchair by the fire.

"Merry Christmas Grandfather!" Victoire said, climbing into his lap to give him a Christmas hug.

"Oh, my little angel, there you are!" Grandfather Weasley exclaimed. "I was beginning to worry you weren't coming!"

"Of course I came Grandfather!" Victoire cried. "It's Christmas after all!" She climbed back down and was about to go see who else had arrived when she remembered something. "Oh, grandfather, the present I sent ahead of me, did it get here alright?" she asked.

Her grandfather smiled. "He's up on the roof with Errol. Just give a good whistle when it's time and he'll come right down."

"Thanks grandfather," Victoire smiled. "Do you think he'll like it?"

"Oh, he's going to love it," her grandfather assured her. "Now run along. Your cousins are all upstairs."

Grabbing her siblings, Victoire hurried up to the fourth floor, where she knew the cousins would have gathered. Every year on Christmas Eve, the entire Weasley family gathered at the Burrow for a big family dinner. Among the multitude of traditions was a game of hide-and-seek. Teddy had implemented it back when they'd been much younger and the game had only grown as more and more cousins had become old enough to play. The only rule was that you had to be at least five to play, which meant that Roxanne, Lily, and Hugo were stuck playing downstairs with the adults.

"Alright, everyone is here!" Molly exclaimed when Victoire, Dominique, and Louis appeared at the top of the stairs. "Now we can start! Does everyone remember the rules?"

"No!" Rose called out. Since Rose, Albus, and Fred were only five, it was their first time being allowed to play with the older cousins.

"Okay, well one person stays behind and counts, while everyone else – "

"We know that part," Albus called out. "Just tell us where we can't hide!"

"Right," Molly said with a nod. "You can hide anywhere from the second floor up except for in Grandmother and Grandfather's room. If you go down to the first floor, you're disqualified and you have to play with the babies," Molly said bossily.

"And no bathrooms this year, remember?" Dominique reminded her. Last year, James had hidden in the toilet and Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny had gotten really mad at him. They'd insisted that if the kids played again this year, they couldn't go in the bathrooms.

"Right, no bathrooms either," Molly agreed. "Sounds good?"

"Yes!" everyone cried.

"Alright, who wants to count first?" Molly asked.

When nobody volunteered, Molly declared that it was Lucy's turn.

"Ugh, you always make me do it," Lucy complained, crossing her arms in front of her.

"What do you mean always?" Molly asked. "Last year was your first year playing."

"And you made me count first last year too," Lucy pointed out.

"Alright, alright, fine, I'll do it then," Molly backed off, turning around and closing her eyes. "I'm going to count to fifty," she announced. "One… two… three…"

Immediately, everyone took off. Victoire had been thinking about a good hiding spot for months and she was sure she'd finally come up with it. There was a closet off the third floor landing that was filled with towels, and one of the shelves was really deep. If she moved fast enough, she could rearrange the towels to give herself enough room to squeeze onto the shelf.

She ran down the stairs to the third floor and threw open the closet door only to find Teddy wedged in exactly where she'd been planning to hide.

"What are you doing?" Victoire cried.

"I'm hiding!" Teddy hissed. "What are you doing? Close the door before she comes down here!"

"So this is why I can never find you!" Victoire exclaimed.

"Shut the door!" Teddy cried as Molly's voice drifted down the stairs. She was already at thirty-nine.

"Where am I going to hide?" Victoire panicked.

"I don't know, figure it out!" Teddy exclaimed, reaching forward and pulling the door shut.

Victoire spun around, looking for a place to go. Apart from the closet, there was nowhere to go on the third floor. There was a bathroom next to her and across the landing was her grandparent's bedroom, but she couldn't hide in either of those. She couldn't go up, because Molly was sure to see her. The only answer was to try to find a spot on the second floor.

Victoire ran to the stairs and was about to go down, when a triumphant voice exclaimed from behind her "caught you!"

Annoyed, Victoire turned around to a victorious Molly dancing her happy dance. "That was too easy!" she rejoiced.

"Yeah, well I was hardly hiding, was I?" Victoire pointed out. "My spot was stolen by someone else."

"Where might that spot have been?" Molly wondered.

"I'm not telling you that," Victoire said, crossing her arms. "You have to find everyone else on your own. I'll be up on the fourth floor."

Moodily, Victoire climbed the stairs back to the starting spot to wait for Molly to find the rest of the cousins. Since she'd been found first, she would have to count on the next turn.

It took about twenty minutes before Molly gave up and called for the remaining hiders to come out from their hiding places. She'd done pretty well though. She'd managed to find Victoire, Louis, Lucy, Albus, Rose, and Fred. It was only Teddy, Dominique, and James that she couldn't find in the end.

"Alright Victoire, it's your turn to count now," Molly instructed.

"Fine," Victoire muttered, putting her hands over her eyes and beginning to count. "One… Two… Three… Four…"

"No peeking!" Fred squeaked.

"I'm not peeking Fred, now go hide!" Victoire said as she continued to count.

She heard footsteps running all over the place and by the time she was at forty-seven, all was quiet.

"Ready or not, here I come!" Victoire shouted.

She decided to check the closet on the third floor first – it would be silly for Teddy to hide there again, but she had to check to make sure. When she swung open the door though, it was just to find a pile of towels neatly stacked. Victoire wondered how Teddy had managed to make it look so neat and tidy and suspected that he'd used underage magic to do it.

"Teddy Lupin!" Victoire called out. "If I find out you're using magic to hide yourself, I'm going to tell Uncle Harry on you!" Victoire cried.

When there was no response, she figured he was either ignoring her, or was actually hiding properly, so she shut the door and continued her search.

She found Albus first. He was hiding under a bed in what had been her Aunt Ginny's room once upon a time. Louis was predictably hiding in the attic and trying to pretend he was just the ghoul. Victoire wasn't fooled. She discovered James under a pile of old clothes in Uncle Ron's old closet and Molly was easily recognizable as the breathing pile of pillows stacked up on Uncle Percy's old bed.

It was a little harder to find Dominique, who had managed to climb up onto the top shelf of the closet in Uncle George's room. Victoire had missed her on her first pass through the room, but heard her breathing on her second pass through. Once she found her sister, she found Fred wedged into the empty bottom drawer of the dresser in the same room. Apparently Dominique had helped him in before hiding herself.

Rose, it turned out, had been hiding behind the door of Aunt Ginny's room the whole time. She came out giggling like a maniac and revealed that Lucy was hiding on the staircase that led to the first floor.

"Technically, I didn't actually go downstairs," Lucy argued with Molly when she was found. "So I'm not disqualified."

No matter how hard she searched though, Victoire could not find Teddy anywhere.

"Alright, I give up!" she cried out in frustration.

"And just in time!" Uncle Ron's voice called up from downstairs. "We're about to start the annual Weasley family Christmas Eve Quidditch game if anyone wants to watch."

Victoire jumped aside as a horde of excited Weasley's pushed past her in an effort to get downstairs to watch. It was another family tradition that anyone who wanted to participate (and who had taken flying lessons) could play in a family-wide Quidditch game before dinner at the Christmas gathering. Though the kids couldn't play, watching was always lots of fun.

"You going down?" Teddy asked, appearing behind Victoire and causing her to jump in fright.

"There you are!" she cried. "Where were you hiding?" she asked.

"If I told you, I wouldn't be able to hide there next time," Teddy smirked.

"One day I'm going to find you," Victoire told him.

"I'm sure you'll try," Teddy said, patting Victoire on the back in mock sympathy and heading down the stairs.

"Hey, I really will!" Victoire insisted.

"Alright, good luck with that," Teddy said.

When they got outside to the field where the Weasleys had set up a makeshift Quidditch pitch, the adults seemed to be having a problem.

"Come on Hermione, just this one time?" Uncle Ron was pleading with his wife. "We can't play with uneven teams."

"You know I don't play Quidditch," Aunt Hermione replied. "What about Victoire or Teddy? They're both at Hogwarts, why don't you ask them?"

"Oh, no thank you!" Victoire said, holding her hands up. "Flying is definitely not my thing."

"What about you Teddy?" Uncle Ron offered. "We're missing a Keeper, you game?"

"Sure, why not?" Teddy agreed with a shrug, grabbing a broom and joining the adults.

"Ooh, this is going to be good!" Victoire said excitedly, taking a seat with her cousins in the grass.

The game was four against four; her father, Uncle Ron, Aunt Ginny, and Uncle George against Uncle Harry, Aunt Angelina, Uncle Charlie and Teddy. Even though her father was on the opposing team, Victoire chose to cheer for Teddy's team, along with all the rest of the cousins.

The game lasted about forty-five minutes before Grandmother Weasley called everyone in for dinner. After washing up, Victoire sat between Dominique and Lily at the children's table and helped cut up Lily's turkey meat. As usual, dinner was a time of much joy and laughter, and when it was over, Grandmother Weasley enchanted the dishes to start washing themselves while everyone gathered in the living room by the tree for Secret Santa.

"What order shall we go in this year?" Grandmother Weasley wondered.

"I say we go alphabetically," Uncle Percy suggested.

"Of course you would suggest that," Uncle George teased him. "I say we thumb wrestle for the honor of going first."

"Let's leave the thumb wrestling for another day," Grandmother Weasley suggested. "We'll go with Percy's idea. Albus? You go first."

"I got Uncle Ron," Albus said, standing up and handing Uncle Ron a folded piece of parchment.

"Well whatever could this be?" Uncle Ron wondered, opening the parchment dramatically. "A drawing! Albus it's beautiful!"

Albus smiled as Uncle Ron passed the gift around for everyone to see. It was a picture of the whole family standing together outside the Burrow, Christmas lights twinkling through the windows.

"Did you get any help with it?" Uncle Ron asked.

"Nope, I did it all by myself," Albus said proudly.

"He did," Harry confirmed. "We offered to help him find a gift, but he said he wanted to be a big boy and do it on his own."

"Well I love it," Uncle Ron said.

Aunt Angelina was next. She had gotten Grandmother Weasley's name and had bought her a beautiful towel set for the bathroom that Grandmother said she would put out whenever she was having guests over. Grandfather Weasley had been given Hugo's name and had gotten him a rubber duck. It was a Muggle toy he'd been researching and he claimed that it was meant to be played with in the bath. Hugo seemed pretty excited about it, but Victoire was just glad Grandfather Weasley hadn't gotten her name.

When Dominique' turn came around, Victoire was shocked to discover that her sister had gotten her name. With their mother's help, Dominique had baked a whole bunch of sweets that were charmed to stay good for months so that Victoire could bring them back to school with her and eat them over the course of the next semester. Victoire gave Dominique a big hug, thanking her for the thoughtful gift.

Predictably, Aunt Hermione bought Louis a book and James got in big trouble when his gift to his younger brother was an empty box and a message saying _fooled ya_.

When Teddy's turn finally came, Victoire leaned forward, curious as to what Teddy had ended up getting for her father. When he unwrapped the oddly-shaped package and produce a pair of scissors, Victoire burst out laughing. Her father smirked and asked if Teddy was trying to tell him something. Teddy shrugged and grinned.

"Alright, well that just leaves Victoire," Grandmother Weasley announced.

"I wonder who's name you drew," Teddy said, pretending he didn't know.

Victoire rolled her eyes. "Okay, well your present is outside, so you have to come with me," she said, leading the boy out into the yard. The rest of the family crowded around the doors and windows to see what it would be. "You've got to whistle," Victoire instructed, smiling in anticipation.

Furrowing his eyebrows in confusion, Teddy obliged and whistled. They waited a moment and then, just like Grandfather Weasley had promised, the beautiful barn owl Victoire had chosen from the Hogwarts owlery flew down from the roof and landed on Teddy's shoulder.

"Merry Christmas!" Victoire exclaimed.

"You got me an owl?" Teddy cried, his eyes going wide.

"I did," Victoire smiled even wider upon seeing Teddy's excitement.

"You got me an _owl_?" Teddy cried. "This is so cool!"

The rest of the family poured out of the house and crowded around Teddy to meet the owl. Dominique came up and stood next to Victoire, watching as the cousins all started suggesting names.

"How did you manage to afford to buy him an owl?" Dominique asked. "I thought you only had a few knuts left."

"I figured something out," Victoire smiled.

"Well whatever you did, I think you just made Teddy's Christmas," Dominique said before running over to join everyone else.

Victoire leaned back against the house and watched as Teddy stroked his new owl's feathers, the smile on his face bigger than she'd ever seen it. It was worth it, she thought to herself. It was so worth it.


	5. January

Chapter 5: January 2012

"Brianna! There you are! I've been looking all over the train for you!" Victoire exclaimed, dragging her trunk into the compartment. Christmas break had ended much too quickly and now they were all heading back to Hogwarts for the second term.

"Kara just went out to find you!" Brianna exclaimed, jumping up to help Victoire heave her trunk up onto the luggage rack. "So, did Teddy love the owl?" she asked. "What did he name him?"

"Moony," Victoire smiled knowingly.

"Huh, that's a weird name for an owl," Brianna commented.

"Victoire! There you are!" Kara cried, bursting through the door and giving her friend a hug. "How was your Christmas? Did he like the owl? He better have."

"He loved it," Victoire replied.

"Apparently he named him Moony," Brianna told her.

"Oh cute!" Kara cried. "Because it's an owl, so it's nocturnal. I get it!"

"Right," Victoire agreed. "So how were your Christmases?"

"Absolutely fantastic!" Kara exclaimed, sitting down across from Brianna and Victoire. "My parents bought me this awesome makeup kit, we are so going to have to test it out tomorrow morning."

"Awesome!" Victoire exclaimed. "What about you Bri?"

"Oh, you know, just a normal Christmas for me," Brianna shrugged.

"Didn't you do anything special?" Kara asked.

"I don't know," Brianna said, looking out the window and then back at her friends. "I guess Christmas just isn't that big a holiday for me."

Victoire could tell that something was bothering Brianna, but she didn't think her friend wanted to talk about it at the moment, so she decided the change the subject.

"So how did you guys make out with your homework over the holiday?" she asked.

"Ugh, I only did about half of it," Kara groaned. "I'm going to have to finish it tonight."

"Me too," Victoire sighed. "Hey, what parts did you do? Maybe we can copy off each other if we did different stuff!"

The three girls pulled out their work to discover that amongst the three of them, they'd actually completed all the work. It only took a couple hours of copying and a bit of re-wording before they had finished it all and were happily putting it away, looking forward to an evening of exploding snap.

The welcome back feast was delicious as always and soon everyone was heading back to their houses to get some sleep before morning classes.

"So are we getting kicked out of the common room again?" Victoire wondered aloud as they climbed through the portrait hole.

"Nah, that's just at the beginning and end of the year," Teddy replied, having overheard the comment from inside the common room. "Most of the upperclassmen probably spent the past two weeks partying and now they have to sleep it all off. Actually, the common room should be pretty quiet tonight."

"Great!" Kara exclaimed. "I'll get the card, you guys get a good spot," she instructed her friends, bouncing up the stairs.

Surprisingly, there was a pretty good spot between the two sets of staircases with a couch and a couple of armchairs that hadn't been claimed yet, so Brianna and Victoire hurried over and spread themselves out to make it clear that it was reserved. Kara returned in moments with the cards and they started their game.

"Teddy, you wanna play?" Victoire offered when she noticed he was still sitting alone by the portrait hole.

"Can't, I've got to finish reading this chapter of my Charms textbook by tomorrow. We're doing Cheering Charms and if I can't do it, I'm going to get assigned a bunch of extra work," Teddy replied.

"Alright," Victoire said, dealing for three.

They played for over an hour before Kara decided that she was bored. By then, the common room had emptied out considerably, but the girls weren't close to tired yet.

"Ooh! Let's play truth or dare!" Kara suggested.

"Yes!" Victoire agreed. "I'll go first. Brianna, truth or dare?"

"Dare," Brianna decided.

"Hmm… I dare you to… get up in the middle of the room and dance like a chicken," Victoire declared.

"What? But there are people still here!" Brianna cried.

"That's what makes it so much more fun," Victoire smirked.

Reluctantly, Brianna got up, stood in the center of the room and started flapping her arms like wings and spinning around. At first, nobody really noticed her, but soon people started pointing and staring. Kara and Victoire were laughing so hard they were clutching their sides.

"Alright, alright, I'm done now," Brianna said, coming back over and sitting down. "I bet I know what everyone's going to be gossiping about tomorrow morning."

"Oh, it's not that bad," Kara said. "There's barely anyone left down here. Most of the house are asleep."

"People talk you know," Brianna pointed out. "Alright Kara, your turn, truth or dare?"

"Truth," Kara decided, wise enough to know that if she chose dare, Brianna would make her do something even more humiliating than what Victoire had forced her to do.

"Have you ever kissed a boy?" Brianna asked.

"What?" Kara asked, her face turning beet red. "No! I'm only eleven!"

"Have you?" Victoire asked Brianna.

"It's not my turn," Brianna said.

"Alright then, Brianna, truth or dare?" Kara demanded.

"Dare," Brianna said with a smirk.

"I dare you to tell us if you've ever kissed a boy," Kara said.

"That's not really in the spirit of the game, you know," Brianna said.

"Answer the question," Kara insisted.

"Fine, yes, I have," Brianna replied.

"Seriously, when?" Victoire asked.

"I don't believe that was part of the dare," Brianna smiled. "Your turn Victoire, truth or dare?"

"Uh… dare I guess," Victoire decided. If she chose truth, Brianna would ask her about kissing boys and after seeing Brianna's reaction to Kara's confession, she wasn't sure she wanted to admit that she hadn't yet.

"Hmm," Brianna said, scanning the room. "I dare you to go over there and kiss Teddy."

"What?" Victoire cried. "Eww, that's gross, he's like my cousin!"

"A dare is a dare. And technically, he isn't your cousin," Brianna said.

"I changed my mind. I pick truth," Victoire declared.

"You can't change once the dare has been issued. You've gotta do it," Brianna told her.

"And if I don't?" Victoire challenged.

"Then in the middle of the night, me and Kara will take Raina's fertilizer and spread it all in your hair. You won't be able to get the smell out for weeks. Remember when it happened to Caitlin when she tripped and fell in it?" Brianna asked.

"You wouldn't!" Victoire cried. "Then it would be all over your hands too!"

"We have gloves," Brianna said.

Victoire looked nervously at Kara, but she was staying noticeably silent.

"Fine," Victoire declared in a huff. She walked over to where Teddy was sitting and crept up behind him. Closing her eyes, she leaned over and placed a swift kiss on the top of his head.

"What? Victoire?" he asked, spinning around in his chair.

"Sorry, it was a dare!" Victoire said hurriedly, running back to her friends.

"You cheated!" Brianna accused her. "You only kissed his head."

"Technically, the dare didn't specify where I had to kiss him," Victoire pointed out. "Just that I had to do it."

"She's right you know," Kara said, siding with Victoire.

"Fine, whatever, this game was lame anyway," Brianna muttered, getting up and leaving in a huff.

"What's up with Bri?" Kara wondered when she had left.

"I don't know," Victoire said. "She's been kind of weird all day."

"Should we ask her about it?" Kara wondered.

"No," Victoire said. "If she wanted to talk about it, she would. We should leave her be for now."

"Alright," Kara agreed. They stayed in the common room for another twenty minutes to give Brianna the chance to get into bed before they came up. When they finally did, they found that the curtains of her bed had been pulled tightly shut.

"What's up with her?" Caitlin asked, looking up from the book she was reading on her bed. "She came up here in a huff and totally ignored me when I said hello.

"It's none of your business," Victoire told the girl.

"Fine," Caitlin said, going back to her book. "Sorry for trying to be a concerned citizen."

Too exhausted to deal with anything else that day, Victoire quickly brushed her teeth and got into her pyjamas and then collapsed into her bed, pulling her curtains closed too. The day had started off so nicely. She wondered what had gone wrong.

VvVvVvVvVvV

"Good morning!" Raina greeted Victoire when she awoke the next morning. "Have you seen my new Shrivelfig?" she asked. "My Aunt got it for me for Christmas. I was just fertilizing it."

"I hadn't seen it," Victoire admitted. "It looks great, but you'll have to excuse me, I have to go to the bathroom." Victoire grabbed her bathroom kit and bolted for the door.

"Hey, have you seen Raina's new Shrivelfig?" Kara asked when Victoire entered the bathroom.

"Oh yes," Victoire said. "She's fertilizing it now."

"Aw man," Kara groaned. "The dorm always smells ten times worse after she has the fertilizer can open.

"I know," Victoire agreed. "I think I might ask Madam Eldridge if she has stronger nose plugs, because I think mine are getting defective."

"Oh good, it's not just me," Brianna said as she entered the bathroom and began to wash her face.

"Definitely not," Victoire said, exchanging a glance with Kara. Brianna seemed fine this morning. Maybe they could just move past whatever weirdness had been going on yesterday.

"You guys ready for History of Magic?" Brianna asked.

"I'm never ready for History of Magic," Kara muttered. "But I guess an extra hour of sleep couldn't hurt."

Victoire laughed. "Who's taking the notes today?" she asked. The three girls had begun a rotation a couple months back so that only one of them had to pay attention each class. It wasn't like Professor Binns noticed most of the class was sleeping through his lectures.

"It's your turn Vic," Kara said apologetically.

"Aw man," Victoire said. "Do either of you want to switch with me?"

"Not a chance," Brianna muttered as she brushed her hair out.

"Don't look at me," Kara said, avoiding eye contact by turning to the mirror and poking at a zit.

"Kara, remember what I told you? Don't pick at it, you have to use the cream," Brianna warned before Kara could permanently damage her face.

"I ran out," Kara admitted. "Do you have any more?"

"Here, take it," Brianna said, passing her the tube. "I don't need it anyway."

The rest of the day passed extremely slowly. Victoire was practically the only person awake in History of Magic and every time she started to doze off, Kara would poke her with her wand, sending sparks zinging through Victoire's body. In potions, they were preparing to brew their third potion of the year; babbling beverage. In Charms, Professor Flitwick fell off the pile of books he usually stood on and it took forever for him to climb back on. By the time he had, so much time had elapsed that they didn't have time to practice the _lumos_ charm. In their final class of the day, Professor Tonks had them silently reading the chapter in their textbook that they had been assigned to read over the break, rightfully assuming that nobody had done it.

By the end of the day, Victoire was so tired from her long day of nothing that she went up to bed almost right after dinner, collapsing on her bed without even brushing her teeth.

VvVvVvVvVvV

Victoire awoke in the middle of the night desperately needing to pee. She was still in her robes and her mouth tasted disgusting from not having brushed it, so she decided to grab her bathroom kit and take care of herself now that she was up anyway. She swung out of her bed and hissed as her feet connected with the cold floor underneath. Carefully, so as not to wake the others, she crept towards her trunk at the end of the bed. Unfortunately, something was lying on the floor in her path and she tripped over it, falling to the floor and crying out in pain.

"What's wrong?" Brianna's voice called out immediately.

"I tripped, go back to sleep," Victoire called back.

"What's going on?" Caitlin's voice asked.

"It's nothing, go to sleep," Victoire repeated.

"Guys? Why are we all awake?" Raina asked, getting up too.

"I don't know," Caitlin said. "Does anybody know the lumos charm?" she asked.

"Guys, it's fine, really, just go back to bed," Victoire insisted, embarrassed that her tripping had caused such a commotion.

"Yeah, I think I can do it," Raina replied. "Let me just find my wand… oh, there it is! _Lumos!_ "

Light from the wand-tip of Raina's wand filled the room and as soon as they saw the room, the four girls started to scream.

"Oh my gosh what is that?" Brianna cried in terror. Overnight, it seemed that Raina's Shrivelfig plant had grown so big that it filled the whole room. Arms were wrapped around bedposts and branches stretched across the floor – it looked like that's what Victoire had tripped over. Vines climbed up the walls and covered the ceiling. The entire room looked like the middle of the Amazon Rainforest.

"It's Raina's plant!" Victoire cried fearfully.

"Merlin Raina, what did you do to it?" Caitlin screamed. "This isn't normal!"

"I don't know!" Raina cried. "I just watered it like the instructions said and I fertilized it with my special fertilizer.

"I'm so fed up of this fertilizer!" Victoire cried out angrily. "First you blew up my cauldron and now this? Raina, that fertilizer has seriously got to go."

"You don't know it was the fertilizer's fault," Raina defended.

"Really? Because I've never heard of a Shrivelfig do this before!" Brianna exclaimed.

"They're right Raina, this is seriously pushing things too far," Caitlin agreed.

"How is Kara not awake right now?" Victoire wondered, standing up to check on her friend. To her horror, she discovered that the Shrivelfig had wrapped itself around Kara's bed completely, effectively trapping her inside. Thankfully, Kara remained fast asleep. "Guys shhh!" Victoire hissed. "We have to make sure Kara doesn't wake up. Look at her, she'll totally freak out."

"What are we going to do?" Brianna whispered.

"Don't look at me!" Raina insisted. "It's not like this has ever happened to me before!"

"One of us needs to get Professor Longbottom," Caitlin decided. "He'll know what to do."

"Victoire, you're closest to the door, you should go," Brianna said.

"Okay, I'll be back as soon as I can," Victoire said, eager to get out of the room as soon as possible.

She climbed carefully over the branches of the plant and breathed a sigh of relief when she found herself outside of the room in the stairwell. Just in case, she made sure to shut the door behind her – she wouldn't want the plant getting out while she was gone and overrunning all of Gryffindor Tower.

Moving at a run now, Victoire hurried down into the common room, ignoring the cries from the older students that it was long past curfew and she couldn't be out roaming the corridors. Professor Longbottom's quarters were all the way down on the first floor and the staircases kept moving to inconvenient locations.

Eventually, Victoire made it to the Professor's quarters and began pounding on the door.

"Professor Longbottom!" she cried. "Professor Longbottom!"

The door opened and Victoire found herself facing Professor Abbott-Longbottom. "I need Professor Longbottom," Victoire cried.

"What's the matter Victoire?" Professor Abbott-Longbottom asked.

"It's a Herbology problem," Victoire told her. "And a Head of Gryffindor House problem."

"Alright, just a moment," the potions Professor said. She disappeared for a moment and then returned with her husband, who looked like he'd only just woken up.

"Professor Longbottom, we need your help," Victoire said. "There's been an… incident in our dormitory."

"What seems to be the problem?" Professor Longbottom asked.

"She said it had something to do with Herbology," Professor Abbott-Longbottom said.

"It'll be better if you just come with me and see for yourself," Victoire said. "And please hurry, we have to fix it before Kara wakes up!"

Victoire grabbed her Professor by the arm and began pulling him down the corridor. "Alright, alright, I'm coming, no need to drag me," he said. "You're sure you can't tell me what's wrong now?"

"You really just have to see it," Victoire said.

They ran up the stairs, Victoire sometimes taking the steps two at a time. By the time they reached the Fat Lady, Professor Longbottom was wheezing and begging Victoire to give him a moment.

"We don't have time to take a moment!" Victoire insisted. "Come on," she insisted, calling out the and password crawling through the portrait hole.

"Professor Longbottom!" a sixth year cried out in surprise when the two of them emerged in the common room. "I swear; I was about to go to sleep!"

"Stay awake if you want to Paul, but exhaustion won't get you out of your oral presentation tomorrow," Professor Longbottom warned.

"Of course Professor," the student, Paul, cried, scrambling to gather himself and hurrying up the staircase to the boys' dorms.

"Come on Professor, we're almost there!" Victoire exclaimed, running up the other staircase, only coming to a stop when they reached the door to her dorm.

"Alright Victoire, what is going on?" Professor Longbottom asked again.

"See for yourself," Victoire said, opening the door and following her Herbology Professor through.

"Oh my… what happened here?" Professor Longbottom asked.

"It's all Raina's fault," Brianna accused. "She has this special fertilizer and she puts it on all her plants, and it turned one of them into a monster!"

"Raina, is this true?" Professor Longbottom asked, turning to Raina.

"Yes Professor, this is my plant and I did put a special fertilizer on it, but I'm still not convinced that this was the fertilizer's fault," Raina said.

"I'm going to need to see a sample of this fertilizer," Professor Longbottom said. "And in the meantime, I'm confiscating all your plants. Merlin knows we don't want another situation like this on our hands."

"Yes Professor," Raina said, hanging her head.

"Out of curiosity, what kind of plant is this?" Professor Longbottom asked.

"A Shrivelfig, Sir," Raina responded.

"Amazing!" their Professor said, marvelling at the room. "Simply amazing!"

"Uh, Professor?" Victoire asked. "Do you think that maybe you could do something, like, before Kara wakes up and realizes that there's a giant plant giving her the world's worst hug?"

"Oh my!" Professor Longbottom exclaimed. "Has she been asleep this whole time?"

"Yes, and we'd prefer to keep it that way. Of all of us, she's the one that's going to have nightmares if she sees this," Brianna said.

"Oh, yes, of course," their Professor agreed. He produced his wand and muttered a few words under his breath and in moments, the plant had retreated and shrunk back to it's original size in the pot.

"Oh thank goodness!" Caitlin gasped. "That thing was starting to give me the creeps!"

"Well, if you girls don't need anything else, then I'll just be taking these plants and going. Raina, you can drop that fertilizer sample off in my office anytime tomorrow," he said, pointing his wand at Raina's plants and levitating them out of the room ahead of him.

"Phew," Victoire said, collapsing onto her bed. "Glad that's over."

"It was like attack of the Shrivelfig in here," Brianna agreed.

"It wasn't that bad," Raina said. "It was just a slightly overgrown plant."

"Slightly overgrown?" Caitlin said incredulously. "That thing was a monster!"

"You guys just have no appreciation of the herbological sciences," she muttered.

"That's not even a thing!" Brianna shot at her.

"Whatever," Raina shot back, pulling her covers over and turning out the light of her wand.

The next morning, Victoire awoke to find Kara rummaging through her trunk for some fresh robes.

"Sleep well?" Victoire asked her friend.

"Like a log," Kara said. "Although I did have this really weird dream that a human-sized plant was giving me a hug."

"Huh, weird," Victoire said.

"Yeah, I guess I shouldn't take seconds of dessert again," Kara said.

"Probably not," Victoire agreed, relieved that her friend had no idea what had happened.

VvVvVvVvVvV

"So there's some pretty weird rumors going around about you and Professor Longbottom," Teddy said, finding Victoire in the library later that afternoon.

"Excuse me?" Victoire asked, affronted. "What rumors are these?"

"Well, supposedly you were dragging him back to your dorm room in the middle of the night," Teddy said.

"Well then I guess the rumors are true," Victoire said. "Because that did happen last night."

"Care to fill me in?" Teddy asked.

"It would seem that Raina's fertilizer works way too well. Her Shrivelfig grew to like, fifty times it's regular size. It was like a jungle. I had to get Professor Longbottom to shrink it back down," Victoire explained.

"Wait, so you're telling me that there was a giant monster plant in your dorm room and you didn't come and find me so that I could see it?" Teddy asked.

"Boys aren't allowed in the girls' dormitories," Victoire pointed out. "Besides, I had a little more on my mind than inviting my friends in to see the freak show."

"Too bad, I bet it was insanely cool," Teddy said.

"More like insanely terrifying," Victoire countered.

"Hey, well at least you got one positive thing out of it," Teddy said optimistically.

"What's that?" Victoire asked.

"A really great story," Teddy smiled.


	6. February

Chapter 6: February 2012

Luckily for Victoire, the rumors about her and Professor Longbottom died down pretty quickly. Even better, after examining Raina's fertilizer, Professor Longbottom confiscated all of it and forbid her from doing any Herbology experiments in the dorms. He did give her a special space in greenhouse two where she could tend to her plants, but it meant that for the first time since the start of term, the first year Gryffindor girls' dormitory was odor-free.

As February arrived, the Professors began to pile on more and more work. Even Professor Brunwell, the Astronomy teacher, who had always avoided giving more than an hour's worth of homework each week had started assigning longer and longer essays. Everyone was falling into the tradition mid-winter rut that came with every February at Hogwarts. For the first years, it was no different.

"Victoire, you should really eat something," Kara said at breakfast one morning. "If you don't, you'll be starving all morning."

"I told you, I'm not hungry," Victoire insisted.

"You say that now, but in half an hour, when we're trapped in the dungeons with Professor Abbott-Longbottom, we're going to be the ones you're complaining to," Brianna grumbled.

"I swear, I don't want to eat anything," Victoire said. "I think I must've eaten something funny last night at dinner because my stomach was being weird all night."

"You think the elves messed up one of their stews?" Kara asked, concerned. "Didn't we all take our stew from the same pot?"

"I don't know," Victoire sighed. "Maybe it was the cookie I ate before bed. Dominique baked them for me for Christmas and I just started a new batch. She could have done something weird to them."

"Do you want to go and see Madam Eldridge?" Kara asked.

"Nah, it'll pass," Victoire said. "I just need to power through."

"Well at least have some toast," Kara said, spreading some butter on a fresh piece and placing it on Victoire's plate.

"If I eat this will you leave me alone?" Victoire asked.

"I promise," Kara swore.

With a sigh, Victoire lifted the toast to her mouth and took a small bite, chewing for much longer than necessary before swallowing.

"Okay, that's it, I can't eat any more," Victoire said, putting it back down.

"You only ate one bite," Kara protested. "You barely touched it!"

"Seriously Kara, do you want me to puke all over you?" Victoire challenged.

"Gross!" Brianna exclaimed. "Kara, just let her be. If it comes down to it, we have to pass the Great Hall to get to History of Magic after Potions, so we can always nab a snack between classes."

"Fine," Kara said, backing off. "I hope you know I was only trying to help."

"And I appreciate it Kara, really I do," Victoire assured her friend. "Come on, let's just get to class. The smell of all this food is upsetting my stomach."

Taking one last swig of pumpkin juice, Brianna swung away from the table and stood up. Victoire and Kara followed suit, heading down to the dungeons. They were studying the combination of ingredients used in standard ingredient today, so Victoire got out her notes from last class as well as some fresh parchment, her favorite quill, and a bottle of black ink. It wasn't long before the rest of the class was filing in and soon, Professor Abbott-Longbottom had started the lesson.

For the first ten minutes or so of the lesson, Victoire was able to pay attention just fine, but soon her stomach started acting up and she was having trouble focusing on her teacher. She started to feel like she was going to throw up, but she convinced herself she was just imagining it and she focused her attention on pushing whatever was in her throat back down. Unfortunately, she wasn't imagining things and before she knew it, she was throwing up all over her desk.

"Ahh!" Brianna cried, jumping up and knocking into Kara on her other side in her attempt to get away from the vomit. "Gross, it got on my shoes!" she cried.

"Are you okay?" Kara gasped, hurrying over and placing a comforting hand on Victoire's back.

Victoire shook her head, not trusting herself to open her mouth. This was utterly humiliating. She had thrown up in front of her entire class. She could practically hear the Slytherin girls snickering and whispering behind their hands.

"Victoire I think you ought to go to the hospital wing. One of your friends can take you up," Professor Abbott-Longbottom said.

"I'll take her," Kara volunteered, taking Victoire's hand and leading her out of the classroom.

"Hold on," Victoire said once they were out in the hallway. "Just give me a minute."

"Okay," Kara said, pausing as Victoire leaned against the stone wall and slid down to the ground. She lifted her knees up and put he head between them as she waited for the wave of nausea to pass.

"Okay, I think I'm good to walk now," Victoire said, reaching out a hand to Kara for help getting up.

Once she was upright, she was able to walk without assistance for most of the way, only needing to lean on her friend a couple of times. When they finally got to the hospital wing, it was empty and Madam Eldridge was nowhere in sight.

"Hello?" Kara called out. "Madam Eldridge? Are you here?"

The door to the hospital wing matron's office swung open and Madam Eldridge popped her head out. "Hello dear, did you need something?" she asked.

"I have a sick student," Kara called back.

Madam Eldridge sprung into action immediately, hurrying over and placing a hand on Victoire's head.

"You have a terrible fever," she said, leading her over to one of the beds. "How are you feeling?"

"Well she just threw up in the potions classroom, so I'm guessing not that great," Kara said.

Madam Eldridge shot Kara a look. "I need to hear from the patient," she told her.

"I feel okay right now," Victoire said. "I still feel a bit nauseous though, and if I'm being honest, my head hurts a bit too, but that's pretty normal for me."

"I'm going to have to do a full check-up on you," Madam Eldridge informed Victoire. Then she turned to Kara. "You can go back to class now. If she doesn't come back to class, you can come and visit at lunch or when afternoon classes are over."

"Are you sure I shouldn't stay for moral support?" Kara asked.

"It's fine Kara, really, you should go," Victoire assured her. "I'll catch up with you in History of Magic."

With a final goodbye, Kara departed, leaving Victoire in the hands of Madam Eldridge.

"I am going to perform a few spells on you now," Madam Eldridge told her. "Just to check your temperature and other routine stuff like that. Just lie back, you shouldn't feel a thing."

Victoire nodded and did as she was told. The nausea was starting to bubble up again, so she shut her eyes and focused on holding it down, at least until Madam Eldridge had finished her check-up.

"Well, it's just as I thought," Madam Eldridge declared when she was through.

Victoire opened her eyes and sent the matron a questioning look.

"It seems that you are the first case of this year's strain of the magical flu," Madam Eldridge informed her.

Just as she said this, Victoire could feel more vomit coming up, so she reached for a nearby garbage can and leaned over it. It wasn't as bad as the last time, but when she was done, Victoire felt even worse.

"There you go," Madam Eldridge said, taking the garbage can from Victoire. "You just lay back and rest. I'll get you a proper bucket in case that happens again. I'll be by in a minute with some potions you can take, but I'm afraid you're going to be staying here for a few days at least."

"You mean you can't just cure me and send me on my way?" Victoire asked.

"I'm afraid not," Madam Eldridge told her. "If you had a regular strain of flu, I could treat you with a simple three-dose potion regimen. Unfortunately, you have the magical flu, which is a lot more difficult to treat. It also presents differently every year, and I can never start working on a treatment plan until the first student comes down with it. Unluckily for you, you're my first."

Victoire groaned and fell back against the pillows. "So I'm just supposed to lie here all day?" she asked.

"Try and get some rest," Madam Eldridge told her as she returned to her office. "I'm sure you're exhausted."

VvVvVvVvVvV

She was right, Victoire realized. She was exhausted. Vomiting twice really takes a lot out of a person, she noted. She decided to give it a try and she closed her eyes. Within minutes, she was fast asleep.

"Victoire?" a voice was saying from somewhere far away. "Victoire, can you hear me?"

Victoire struggled to clasp onto the voice. It was real, she realized, and she was asleep.

"Kara?" she asked, forcing herself awake. She opened her eyes to find Kara and Brianna standing on either side of her bed. Sometime during her sleep, Madam Eldridge had pulled dividers over to shield her bed from the view of the rest of the castle, for which she was grateful. Especially if more people were on their way into the hospital wing with the same illness she had.

"Hey there sleepyhead," Kara smiled. "We came by at lunch, but you were fast asleep."

"I slept all day?" Victoire asked groggily.

"Yup," Kara confirmed. "But it's good. Madam Eldridge says that resting allows your body to get the energy it needs to fight this flu or whatever."

"Is everybody talking about how I threw up in potions?" Victoire asked.

"Nah," Brianna assured her. "Everyone basically forgot about that when Sara Pucey from Slytherin threw up all over Professor Tonks in Transfiguration this afternoon."

"She's in the next bed over," Kara added. "But she's asleep right now."

"Oh my God that's so much worse," Victoire exclaimed gleefully.

"I know right?" Kara said, pulling up a chair and sitting down while Brianna did the same on the other side. "So what did Madam Eldridge say? She wouldn't tell us much."

"Basically I'm going to be stuck here for a few days at least," Victoire sighed. "Apparently I'm the first student with this year's magical strain of flu and you can't figure out how to treat it until you see it's first presentation. I guess basically I'm her test dummy."

"Oh, it's just the flu," Brianna assured her. "It's not like it's going to kill you. And look on the bright side. You get to miss a few days of classes. That's not terrible."

"I'm going to fall way behind," Victoire said.

"No you're not. All our Professors gave us notes to pass along to you and made us promise to make sure you do the assignments on time," Kara said, producing a stack of parchment almost as thick as Victoire's transfiguration textbook.

"That's all from today?" Victoire asked, aghast.

"No, that's for the rest of the week," Brianna said. "They figured this way you would have it all and could do it at your own pace."

"When am I going to have time to go through all of this?" Victoire moaned.

"How about when you're stuck in here all alone with these other sick people and we're all stuck in class," Brianna suggested.

"And I thought this was going to be a vacation," Victoire rolled her eyes sarcastically. "Just leave it on the side table, I don't want to look at it right now."

"Oh, and we brought you your bag with all your things," Kara added, gesturing to the bag in question, which was on the floor, leaning against her side table.

"Thanks," Victoire said gratefully. "I had some important things in there."

"Like what?" Brianna asked.

"Nothing special," Victoire shrugged. "Just, you know, it would suck to have to re-buy all my textbooks."

"You were talking about the stuffed bear, weren't you?" Brianna accused her.

"What?" Victoire cried. "You know about _L'Ourson_?"

"Of course we do, we're your best friends," Kara said. "It's no big deal. So you have a stuffed bear that you carry around everywhere you go. I can't use the Floo Network unless I'm wearing my lucky shoes."

"What?" Victoire asked.

"Never mind," Kara said, waving her hand in the air. "The point is we don't care that you have a stuffed bear."

"For the record, I don't usually carry him to class with me," Victoire said defensively. "It was just that I wasn't feeling well and I thought he might bring me some extra comfort."

"Well then it's a good thing he's here with you now," Kara said, reaching into the bag and pulling _L'Ourson_ out. "There you go," she said, tucking the bear into the crook of Victoire's elbow.

"Thanks," Victoire smiled.

"We should get going," Brianna said, noting the time. "Dinner's about to start."

"We'll stop by later," Kara promised. "Feel better!"

Victoire waved as her friends stepped to the other side of the partitions and left the hospital wing. She realized she was still quite tired, so she rolled over to her side, clutching _L'Ourson_ close and closed her eyes, letting sleep claim her once again.

VvVvVvVvVvV

"You know, when you take a puking pastille, you're not supposed to go to the hospital wing," a voice muttered, pulling Victoire from her sleep. "You're supposed to eat the other end and then go be mischievous."

"I didn't take a puking pastille," Victoire muttered, pulling herself up into a seated position.

"Could've fooled me," Teddy grinned.

"I'm seriously sick," Victoire groaned as her stomach decided to start flipping around uncomfortably.

"I heard," Teddy said, leaning back in his chair. "I talked to Madam Eldridge."

"I thought Madam Eldridge couldn't divulge personal information about students to other students," Victoire questioned.

"Okay, so I made my grandmother talk to Madam Eldridge and then I eavesdropped," Teddy admitted. "Happy now?"

"Not really," Victoire said, feeling bile rise up into her throat.

"Well then what do you want me to – "

Teddy stopped short when Victoire suddenly reached for her bucket and began to heave into it. He immediately jumped up to sit next to her on the bed and rubbed circles on her back as her throat continued to convulse.

"Ugh, I'm so sorry," Victoire said when it was done, putting the bucket back on the floor.

"Don't be sorry," Teddy said, returning to his seat. "You're sick. It's not like you did it on purpose."

"That's true," Victoire agreed. "Alright, then I guess I'm not sorry."

Teddy chuckled. "So I hear it happened in potions?" he asked.

Victoire groaned and buried her head in her hands. "So everyone is talking about me!" she cried.

"Nah. Actually, everyone's talking about your neighbor over there," he said, motioning to the bed on Victoire's left. "Rumor has it she threw up all over my grandmother. Grandma wasn't too happy about that, let me tell you."

"So who told you about me?" Victoire asked.

"I had to weasel the information out of Kara and Brianna," Teddy confessed. "They weren't too eager to share, but I eventually cracked them."

"How?" Victoire wondered.

"I might have threatened them by saying that if they didn't tell, I would convince my grandmother to give the first years a terrible month-long project and make sure to pair the Gryffindors with the Slytherins," he said.

"That's so mean!" Victoire exclaimed.

"I wanted the information," Teddy defended himself.

"Could you really get your grandmother to do that?" Victoire wondered.

"Not a chance," Teddy shook his head. "But Kara seemed to believe me quickly enough."

"Kara's pretty gullible," Victoire agreed. "So why'd you so desperately need all this information? Are you going to send a report to my father?"

"Oh, didn't you know?" Teddy asked in mock surprise. "I send your father weekly reports about your activities and general wellbeing."

"You do not!" Victoire cried.

"I do, I really do!" Teddy insisted. "I tell him what you eat at every meal, what time you wake up and go to bed, how many hours you spend on your homework, and how often you paint your nails in the common room."

"What you've just described right there is stalking, my friend, and it is a very unattractive look on anyone, least of all you," Victoire said, scooting up. As she did so, the covers shifted a bit, revealing _L'Ourson_ sitting in her lap.

"Oh my gosh, is that _L'Ourson_?" Teddy gasped grabbing him and examining him thoroughly. "I remember him, you never used to go anywhere without him!"

"Give me that!" Victoire cried, grabbing the bear back and stuffing it under the covers. "I only have him here because I'm sick. Usually he just sits at the bottom of my trunk collecting dust."

"Oh, no judgement here," Teddy assured her. "I just didn't realize he was still around. I thought you got rid of him when you turned nine and decided that you'd grown much too mature for a stuffed bear."

"Well I didn't get rid of him," Victoire sniffed. "I figured I might need him someday and clearly, I was right."

"I think it's sweet," Teddy said.

Victoire rolled her eyes.

"No really, I do," Teddy said. "Listen, don't tell my room mates, but I still have that stuffed wolf from back when I was a kid. You know, the one Uncle Harry gave me?"

"Seriously?" Victoire laughed. "You still have that old thing?"

"Yeah, I keep it in the cupboard next to my bed and if I'm feeling sick or sad or something, then I wait until everyone else is asleep and I take him out," Teddy revealed.

Victoire smiled. "Alright, that makes me feel a little better," she admitted.

Just then, Madam Eldridge bustled over, shooing Teddy out. "Lights out in five minutes!" she insisted. "Visiting hours are over!"

Teddy got up and gave Victoire a hug before obeying Madam Eldridge and leaving the hospital wing.

"Here is your nighttime potion," Madam Eldridge said, handing a smoking concoction to Victoire.

"Is it safe?" she asked skeptically.

"Absolutely," Madam Eldridge assured her. "It will help with the nausea and make it easier to sleep."

With a shrug, Victoire downed the potion and handed the empty goblet back to the hospital wing matron. It took effect almost immediately, quelling the somersaults in her stomach and making her eyelids very heavy. She was asleep before she even hit the pillows.

VvVvVvVvVvV

Victoire ended up having to stay in the hospital wing for a week and a half. By the time she was finally released, she was so bored she was even looking forward to History of Magic class again. She had gotten so much homework done during the long days alone in the hospital wing that she was actually way ahead of Kara and Brianna, which meant that while they slaved over potions essays and star charts, she got to lounge in the common room reading _Teen Witch_ articles. All in all, though, Victoire was just glad to be back living in a place that didn't smell like sterilizer. After the second day in the hospital, she'd thought her nose was going to fall off. It was worse than the fertilizer even. Actually, the fertilizer was worse.

"Feeling better?" Caitlin asked when Victoire returned to the dorm for the first time.

"Yes, thank you, I am, I'm feeling much better," Victoire said.

"Well if you suddenly decide you have to throw up in the middle of the night, try and make it to the bathroom," Caitlin pleaded. "I definitely don't need the smell of vomit stinking the place up."

"I'm not going throw up," Victoire said. "I'm not sick anymore, remember?"

"I'm just saying that if you feel like it's going to happen, get to a sink or a toilet," Caitlin said.

"Whatever," Victoire sighed. It was starting to feel like she was saying whatever to Caitlin a lot these days, but what was the use in fighting with her? Caitlin would never relinquish her position, even if it became glaringly obvious that she was in the wrong.

VvVvVvVvVvV

"Truth or dare?" Victoire asked Kara later that night as the three friends stayed up late in the common room.

"Uh… truth," Kara decided.

"What was the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you?" Victoire asked.

"Oh boy, that would have to be walking into the Great Hall Halloween morning dressed as a mermaid," Kara reminisced.

"Really? That's your most embarrassing moment?" Brianna asked.

"Sure, what's yours?" Kara asked.

"Definitely the time my younger sister stole my mom's wand at her office Christmas party and accidentally vanished all my clothes," Brianna revealed.

"Oh my gosh, that's so much worse!" Kara cried, clapping her hand over her mouth.

"It was humiliating!" Brianna agreed.

"Vic, truth or dare?" Kara asked.

"Truth," Victoire decided.

"Hmm… ooh! I have a good one! Why do you still sleep with your stuffed bear?" she asked.

"Seriously?" Victoire asked. "You're not really going to make me answer that, are you?"

"Okay, well now you definitely have to answer," Brianna said.

"Fine," Victoire said, looking down at the floor uncomfortably. "It reminds me of my grandfather," she muttered. "He gave it to me before he died."

"Grandfather Weasley passed away?" Kara asked, furrowing her brow.

"No, my other grandfather. _Grandpapa Delacour_ ," Victoire clarified. "He was my mother's father. He died when I was six. I only have a few memories of him, and one of them is when he gave me _L'Ourson._ "

"I'm so sorry," Kara said, reaching a hand out and placing it on Victoire's shoulder.

"It was a long time ago, it's not like it haunts me or anything, but _L'Ourson_ makes me feel closer to him sometimes," Victoire said.

"I totally get it," Kara agreed. "I have this necklace that my grandmother gave me before she passed away and whenever I wear it, I think of her."

"That's so nice," Victoire smiled. "Way less embarrassing than a stuffed bear."

"There's nothing embarrassing about a stuffed bear," Kara said. "What about you Bri, do you have anything like that?"

"No," Brianna said shortly. "I think I'm tired of playing. I'm going to bed." She stood up rather abruptly and left without another word.

"What was that about?" Kara wondered.

"I don't know," Victoire frowned. "But I think something must seriously be bothering her."


	7. March

Chapter 7: March 2012

"Have you seen my charms book?" Victoire cried in a frenzy, hopping around the room while trying to put her shoe on.

"I think I saw it under your bed," Brianna returned, throwing her robes on haphazardly.

"I can't find my ink!" Kara cried, rummaging through her trunk manically.

"It doesn't matter; you can share mine!" Victoire said, retrieving her book from under her bed and stuffing it in her bag. "Come on, we've got to go, we're already late and charms is all the way down on the second floor!"

Scrambling to grab their things, the three girls barrelled out of the dorm and set off for their first class. For some reason, the alarm Kara had set the night before never went off, and it seemed that Caitlin and Raina had elected to let them sleep in rather than waking them for breakfast.

"Oh there you girls are," Professor Flitwick greeted them all when they burst through the door. "We were beginning to wonder what was keeping you."

"Slept in," Kara said, catching her breath.

"Missed the alarm," Victoire added, taking in a big gulp of air.

"Well why don't you take your seats. I was just telling the rest of your classmates about the new project I'm assigning," he said.

"A project?" Victoire questioned.

"Yes," Professor Flitwick confirmed. "Now sit down and I'll tell you about it."

Doing as he said, the girls took the only remaining seats in the room; front and center. Once they were seated and quiet, Professor Flitwick began to speak again.

"As I was saying, for the next few weeks, in five teams of eight, you will be researching the history of the creation of various charms that we have learnt so far this year. I of course will be choosing the teams. Each team will consist of a young boy and a young girl from each of the four houses. I find this is a lovely way to encourage house unity while you're all still in your first years. At the end of the project period, each team will stand up front and give a short oral presentation about the history of their spell so that we can all be better informed about the spells that we are using. Any questions?"

When nobody had any questions, Professor Flitwick started reading names off a sheet of paper. True to his word, each team had two members from each house in it; a boy and a girl. The bright side of this was that Victoire didn't have to be worried about getting paired with Raina. The downside was that there was no chance of being paired with Kara or Brianna.

Victoire's team consisted of Adrian Carter from Gryffindor, Joe Sanders and Ellie Sawbridge from Hufflepuff, Frederick Edgecombe and May Enlow from Ravenclaw, and Damian Roper and Sara Pucey from Slytherin. They were assigned the _Alohomora_ spell and were given the rest of the period to confer in their groups and come up with a plan of action.

"So clearly there are two parts to this project," May Enlow declared as soon as Victoire's group had assembled. "There's the research on the nature of the spell itself, and the research on the history of it's creation. I think we should split into two research groups because eight people is a lot to be trying to work together. We can take the next week to do the research for our part and then we'll reconvene the following week to put it all together, sounds good?"

"What if we all just had our own individual assignments?" Sara Pucey asked. "Then we wouldn't have to work with each other at all and we could do the project on our own time."

"That would be much too complicated," May told her. "We could potentially miss something or have too much overlap between each of our parts. We need cohesion if we're going to do well on this assignment."

"Whatever," Sara muttered, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes. "This project is dumb anyway."

"As for the group divisions," May continued. "I think it's best if there were at least one member of each house on each team. Since each house is known for different talents, I think it could help give our project a more well-rounded feel to it. So to make things easier, why don't we split up with the guys doing the nature of the spell and the girls doing the history of it's creation?"

Everyone shrugged their agreement, not really wanting to argue with May after what happened with Sara. Pleased, May clapped her hands together and smiled. "So girls, how about we meet in the library after our last class to start research."

"Can't wait," Sara muttered sarcastically. Victoire felt about as enthusiastic as Sara, but didn't dare say so.

"My team is the worst," Brianna complained as she, Kara, and Victoire headed to their next class. "I got stuck with this guy from Ravenclaw, Stanley Towler, who thinks he's the boss of everyone."

"Uh, I have the same problem," Victoire said. "You know that girl May Enlow? She basically just told us what we're going to do and gave no room for any other ideas."

"At least neither of you is stuck with Arnold Rosen," Kara grumbled.

"Who's he?" Victoire asked. "Is he the nose-picker from Slytherin or the guy from Ravenclaw that's always crawling under desks?"

"Nose-picker," Kara clarified. "The guy from Ravenclaw is Arnold Chapman."

"Oh that's right, I always get those two confused," Victoire said.

"I hate how the Professors keep choosing our groups for us. Why can't we make our own groups? We're not five!" Brianna exclaimed.

"I think they're trying to get us to mingle," Victoire said. "You know, meet people outside our houses so that we can expand our social horizons? All that nonsense?"

"That's silly," Brianna replied. "If I wanted to make friends in the other houses, I would make friends in the other houses. Isn't the point of the houses to separate us from each other based on who we're most likely to get along with?"

"I thought the point of the houses was just to keep us organized," Kara said.

"Who cares?" Victoire asked. "The point is, these group assignments are silly and annoying. I mean, we had plans to play exploding snap later, and now we can't because I have to meet my group in the library right after classes."

"Well that's not a big deal," Kara said. "We can just play exploding snap after dinner."

"But that's when I'm meeting my group!" Brianna protested.

"See?" Victoire cried. "This project is ruining our lives!"

VvVvVvVvVvV

As soon as their last class was over, Victoire hurried to the library to find Ellie Sawbridge sitting alone at a table, waiting for the rest of the group. Victoire walked over and sat down.

"Hey," she said. "Been here long?"

"Nah," Ellie replied. "I mean; class did only just end."

"Good point," Victoire muttered.

"So how do you feel about the project?" Ellie wondered.

Victoire hesitated. She didn't know Ellie that well and wasn't sure whether or not she could trust her with the truth.

"How do you feel about the project?" Victoire countered.

"Well, if I'm being honest…" Ellie hesitated, glancing around and then leaning forward. "I think that girl, May Enlow, needs to take a calming draught or two."

"Oh my gosh, I know, right?" Victoire cried, earning her a shushing from Madam Maxwell. "I mean, who made her queen of this group?"

"I know!" Ellie replied. "I feel like she's missing the whole point of the project!"

"Which is…" Victoire frowned.

"Working together of course!" Ellie said.

"Oh! Right," Victoire agreed.

Before they could say much else, May and Sara arrived and they began work on their project. Over the course of the rest of the day, May had narrowed down their topic to four individual focuses so that each of them had their own thing to research. When Victoire thought about it, it sounded a lot like what Sara had suggested, but she didn't say so.

May instructed her to research the life of the guy who had created the spell; some ancient African sorcerer named Langalibalele. With some help from Madam Maxwell, she found a few books on the subject and got to work. By the time dinner came around, she wasn't close to finished, so she checked the books out of the library and lugged them down to the Great Hall for dinner.

"How was group project time?" Kara asked when Victoire sat down, placing her books on the seat next to her since she had so many.

"Terrible," Victoire sighed. "This is going to take forever. Ellie is so lucky; all she has to do is research how the spell got to Europe. I have to learn all about this guy's life in Africa and what motivated him to create the spell and everything. And it was so long ago, so the stuff that's written about him isn't all that great."

"I'm sorry," Kara said. "But at least it's only for a few weeks. It's not like the project is going to last the whole year or anything. I heard that the seventh years got assigned this huge project on the first day of classes and they have to spend the whole year on it."

"That sounds terrible!" Victoire cried. "When we're picking our N.E.W.T. courses, remind me not to take Charms."

"I might do it," Brianna said. "If it was a different Professor. I don't know if I could handle Professor Flitwick for six more years. Four is long enough."

"He's really not that bad," Kara disagreed.

"Kara, seriously, it takes him a millennium to get out a single sentence," Brianna exaggerated.

"So he's a little old," Kara muttered. "He's better than Professor Binns."

"But Professor Binns doesn't give out annoying group projects," Victoire pointed out.

"That's true," Brianna agreed. "Plus at this point, its pretty obvious that Professor Binns is going to be teaching here for the rest of eternity. At least Professor Flitwick could retire."

"Unless he plans on being the next Professor Binns," Kara joked.

"Could he though?" Victoire wondered. "I mean; Charms is a lot more practical than History of Magic. Professor Binns can get away with just reading his notes, but a ghost wouldn't be able to do practical demonstrations of spells and things."

"Good point," Kara agreed. "I guess he'll have to retire eventually."

"Please let it be soon," Brianna said with a glance to the ceiling.

"You are so mean," Kara teased their friend.

"You're right, I am," Brianna agreed. "Am I also late for my group meeting," she added. "I'll see you guys later in the common room."

Victoire and Kara bid their friend goodbye as she ran out of the Great Hall. They finished their dinner quickly and then began to head back upstairs.

"Shoot, I think I forgot one of my books in the Great Hall!" Kara cried as they reached the seventh floor.

"Do you want me to come back with you to get it?" Victoire offered.

"Nah, I'll just go alone," Kara muttered. "I'll be back as soon as I can be."

"Don't kill yourself on those stairs!" Victoire called after her friend as she hurried back in the opposite direction. " _Alohomora_ ," she muttered the new password ate the Fat Lady. The guardian of Gryffindor Tower thought it was absolutely hilarious to use the unlocking spell as the password to get into the common room.

Victoire climbed through, wondering what she was going to do while she waited for Kara when she noticed Teddy sitting alone at a table in the back working on what appeared to be homework.

"What do you know about Langalibalele?" Victoire asked, plopping down next to the older boy.

"I'm sorry, what?" Teddy asked.

"Langalibalele," Victoire repeated.

"I feel like I need to say bless you or give you a tissue or something," Teddy joked.

"It's not a joke," Victoire said. "He's an ancient African wizard who created the unlocking spell."

" _Alohomora_?" Teddy asked. "Why would you care about that guy?" he asked.

"I'm doing a project on him for Charms," Victoire explained.

"You're doing a project on Langalibalele for Charms?" Teddy repeated.

"So you do know him!" Victoire cried.

"Yeah, I did the same project back in first year," Teddy said. "Actually, it was on the history of the unlocking spell in general, but my part was all about the creator."

"We're doing the same thing!" Victoire said excitedly. "And I got assigned the same part as you."

"Huh, well that's lucky," Teddy said.

"Do you still have your notes from when you did the project?" Victoire asked. "I've been doing all this research and nothing makes any sense."

"Oh yeah, I remember trying to decipher those ancient writings," Teddy said. "It was awful."

"Exactly," Victoire agreed. "So can I borrow your notes?"

"You know, in some countries, that would be considered cheating," Teddy said, wagging his finger at her.

"Please?" Victoire begged. "I promise I'll only use them as a reference. Anything I use will be totally in my own words."

"Alright," Teddy decided. "But if you get caught plagiarizing me, I'm not going down for this. I'm telling them you snuck into my dorm and stole the notes."

"Fine, whatever," Victoire said in a rush. "Can I please just have those notes?"

"You need them now?" Teddy asked.

"Now would be good, yeah," Victoire said.

With a sigh, Teddy pushed his chair back and disappeared up the stairs to his dorm. A few minutes later, he reappeared with a few rolls of parchment in his hand.

"You're lucky I held on to this," he said. "I usually throw my old work out."

"Why'd you keep this then?" Victoire wondered.

"It was my first _Outstanding_ ," Teddy replied with a shrug.

"And you kept it?" Victoire smirked. "That's – I'm sorry, it's not funny," she said, trying to stop herself from laughing. "It's very sweet, really it is."

"Don't tell you didn't keep your first _Outstanding_ ," Teddy said.

"Who says I've gotten one yet?" Victoire replied.

"Oh I'm sure you have," Teddy said. "And I'm sure it's sitting upstairs in your trunk in a place of honor."

"Actually, I owled it home to _maman_ and _papa_ ," Victoire admitted.

"And you were laughing at me?" Teddy cried.

"I only owled it to them because I knew they'd be excited about it. It's not like I held onto it for _two years_ ," Victoire said.

"Just be thankful I did, or you wouldn't have the notes to use for your own presentation," Teddy said.

"You're right, thank you," Victoire said. "I am eternally grateful."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Teddy muttered. "Now let me finish this rune translation so I can get on with my life."

With a smile, Victoire stood and began to walk away to find a place for her and Kara to work. "Oh, I assume you'll want these back?" she asked, waving the parchment at Teddy.

"You really get a kick out of being annoying, don't you?" Teddy asked, shaking his head.

"I really do," Victoire smiled. "Mostly to you though."

"Lucky me," Teddy rolled his eyes as he returned to his work.

VvVvVvVvVvV

"Come on Sara, how do you still have nothing done?" May yelled. They were working on their group project some more and it wasn't going well. They only had a couple days left before it was due and they weren't close to finished. "Victoire's already finished, Ellie's practically done and you've barely even found the books you need for your research!"

"It's not like these are our O.W.L.s or anything," Sara shot back.

"No, but if we don't pass first year, then they'll make us repeat the year and we'll be kept behind while everyone else moves on to second year," May cried.

"No they won't," Victoire spoke up. "I mean, you'll have to take the class over in summer school, but as long as you pass that, they won't keep you back."

"I can't go to summer school!" May cried. "Nobody would ever respect me again! I'd be the laughingstock of Ravenclaw Tower."

"You Ravenclaws are so uptight," Sara rolled her eyes. "Relax. We'll get the project done. You won't fail this silly little assignment that's probably worth less than two percent of your first year grade."

"It would be easier to believe you if you would just _do the work_!" May screamed.

"Have you checked in with the guys recently?" Sara asked. "Because from what I've heard from Damian they're not as far ahead as you might hope."

"What?" May cried. "I told Fred he needed to stay on top of them."

"I guess putting Ravenclaws in charge of everything doesn't always work out, huh?" Sara said. "Maybe if you'd let everyone contribute to the planning, we'd be further along by now."

"I thought this was the best plan!" May cried. "It was the most logical breakdown of the work!"

"Everything doesn't always have to be done in the most logical way possible, you know," Sara insisted. "And as for your star pupil, Victoire? I heard she just copied some older student's project."

"I did not!" Victoire cried, affronted. "I just borrowed his notes for inspiration. All my work is totally my own!"

"I don't know what we're going to do," May cried, burying her head in her hands.

"Here's what we're going to do," Ellie spoke up, taking charge. "We're going to find the guys and put what we have so far together. Then we're going to stay here as late as we have to and we're going to finish the parts that need to be finished _together_."

"It's not like its due tomorrow," Sara pointed out.

"Well we're going to act like it's due tomorrow," Ellie declared. "We're going to get this thing finished tonight because tomorrow I have a meeting of the gobstones club that I don't want to miss."

"Wait, you're in the gobstones club?" Sara laughed. "That's so l – "

"Cool!" Victoire jumped in. "It's so cool. But it's not really the point. The point is, we need to find the guys. May, you look around in the rest of the library. Sara, you check the Great Hall. Ellie and I will stay here and start compiling what we have."

The other girls only waited a beat before scrambling up to begin to do as Victoire had ordered.

"Thanks for backing me up," Ellie said when May and Sara were gone.

"No problem," Victoire said. "Things were getting ridiculous. Taking charge was the right thing to do."

May ended up finding the boys goofing off in the back corner of the library. Sara was a little upset that she'd gone all the way to the Great Hall and back for no good reason, but soon forgot about it as they all plunged into their work. It took a while, but by the time the library was closing and Madam Maxwell was trying to kick them out, they were putting the finishing touches on their presentation.

"Good work everyone," Victoire declared as they parted ways. "Make sure you all learn your parts for the presentation on Thursday."

When Victoire returned to her dorm, she collapsed on her bed. Physically, she wasn't tired at all, but mentally she was completely drained.

"How did it go?" Kara asked, looking up from the magazine she was reading on her bed.

"It was awful, but we got it done," Victoire replied. "I don't think I ever want to do an inter-house project again."

"At least it's over now," Kara pointed out. "So you can stop losing sleep over it."

"I haven't been losing sleep over it!" Victoire protested.

"So it wasn't you that was sitting in the windowsill last night staring out over the grounds?" Kara asked.

Victoire frowned. "No," she replied. "It wasn't."

"Oh!" Kara said, surprised. "I thought it was you. I wonder who it could have been then."

"What window was it that you thought you saw me in?" Victoire wondered.

"The one between yours and Brianna's beds," Kara replied.

"Do you think it could have been Brianna?" Victoire wondered.

"I don't know," Kara frowned. "I supposed it could have been. Your hair is about the same length, and in the dark, I wouldn't have been able to tell if it was light or dark. We could ask her about it."

"No, don't," Victoire said, holding a hand up. She had the strong feeling that Brianna was dealing with something that she clearly didn't want to talk about. Trying to question her about it could only be a bad idea.

"Alright, I won't," Kara shrugged.

VvVvVvVvVvV

The day of the big presentation finally arrived. Victoire awoke nervous, but not for herself. She just hoped that her group could be cohesive this one last day so that they wouldn't fail the project. She knew failing one project wouldn't sentence them all to summer school, but she didn't need May freaking out on her.

Charms was scheduled for right after lunch. Almost none of the first years were able to eat anything at all because they were nervous about the presentations. For most of them, it was the first time they were going to be standing up and speaking in front of people.

When they got to Charms class, Professor Flitwick announced the order of the presentations. Kara's group got the unlucky first position with Victoire's group being assigned to go second. All through Kara's group's presentation, Victoire could hardly pay attention. She kept fidgeting and looking around to assess whether her group members looked calm or nervous.

Finally, it was Victoire's turn. She and her group gathered at the front and Victoire began the presentation by giving a short biography of Langalibalele's life. Next Sara stepped forward and talked about what motivated him to create the spell in the first place and May talked about it's reception throughout Africa. Following this, Ellie stepped up and talked about how the spell came to Europe and then the guys talked about the mechanics of the spell itself.

When they were done, the class gave them a big round of applause and Professor Flitwick awarded them with an _Exceeds Expectations_ , a mark that had May beaming with pride.

The rest of the groups went, none of them receiving an _Outstanding_ , but none failing either. By the end of the class, Victoire was ready to never think about Langalibalele again.

"So how did it go?" Teddy asked later that night when Victoire was handing him back the notes she had borrowed.

"It was fine," Victoire said. "We got an _Exceeds Expectations_."

"So you still didn't manage to do as well as me?" Teddy sighed. "Tsk tsk, and I lent you my notes and everything."

"Yeah well you try working with a group like the one I had. We spent most of the time yelling at each other instead of actually doing the work," Victoire said.

"Well that's not in the spirit of inter-house unity," Teddy said.

"I'm so over inter-house unity," Victoire sighed. "Can't we just be happy within our own houses?"

"But then how are you going to be prepared to live in the real world?" Teddy asked.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Victoire returned.

"Just that when you have a job, you're going to have to work with people who are different than you. People who weren't necessarily in Gryffindor. So you have to learn how to work with all kinds of different people," Teddy explained.

"I guess," Victoire sighed. "But I'd really rather just work with Gryffindors."

"Gryffindors are superior," Teddy joked. "No one beats the lion."

Victoire rolled her eyes. "Just take your notes," she said, shoving them in front of Teddy's face.

She stalked away to join Kara and Brianna in their dorm room. It had been far too long since they'd done proper pedicures and with the project out of the way they had the whole night free.

"I expect better next time young lady," Teddy called out after her.

Victoire chuckled to herself. Hogwarts would be so boring if it weren't for Teddy.


	8. April

Chapter 8: April 2012

With the arrival of April, the snow began to melt and it began to rain a lot, keeping the students of Hogwarts cooped up in the castle for days on end. The Easter holidays were fast approaching, but it seemed that most of the students were electing to stay at the castle for the week due to the volume of work that was being heaped on them all by their Professors as preparation for the end-of-year examinations. Victoire and Kara had both decided that they would be staying at Hogwarts over Easter, but Brianna had declared that she would be going home for the holiday.

"Come on," Kara complained the night before the signup sheets had to be finalized. "You don't need to go home, stay at Hogwarts with us! We'll have a great time!"

"How many times do I have to tell you?" Brianna insisted. "I'm going home, so stop trying to convince me not to!"

For the third time in as many days, Brianna stormed off yet again, shoving her way through the portrait hole and disappearing into the castle.

"Where's she going?" Kara wondered, confused.

Victoire shrugged.

"What's gotten her so upset?" Kara muttered.

"I think it has something to do with her family," Victoire said then. "Think about it, every time she's gotten upset, we were talking about our families, and every time she's stormed off, we were asking her about hers."

"You're right!" Kara said. "Should we ask her about it?"

"No," Victoire decided. "She clearly wants to keep it to herself."

Soon, it was time for the students who were going home to leave. Victoire and Kara bid Brianna goodbye after eating a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs and then headed back up their dorm, not having much else to do. Unfortunately for them, both Raina and Caitlin had elected to remain at the school over the break, which meant that they weren't going to get the dorm to themselves like they'd hoped.

"We could try playing wizard's chess," Kara suggested when neither of them could think of anything interesting to do.

"I'm miserable at chess," Victoire said.

"Well that works out great, because so am I," Kara said brightly, leading Victoire back down to the common room. She grabbed a chessboard from one of the shelves and began setting the game up at one of the tables. "Do you want to be white?" Kara offered.

"Sure, why not?" Victoire sighed, sitting down and crossing her arms as she considered the board. "Pawn to C4," she decided, watching as the pawn did as requested.

"Pawn to C5," Kara countered.

"Why are we even doing this?" Victoire sighed. "This game is boring."

"Come on, just see this one game through and then we'll find something else to do," Kara promised.

Victoire agreed and called out her next move. Soon, they had claimed almost all of each other's pieces and their remaining men were dancing around each other, neither of them ready to sacrifice a piece for fear of losing.

"It's like watching a monkey try to learn sign language," Teddy joked, plopping down in the chair next to Kara.

"For your information, it's not like I wanted to play," Victoire said.

"Move your bishop to E6," Teddy told her.

"But if I do that, Kara's queen will destroy my him!" Victoire exclaimed.

"Just trust me," Teddy said.

"Fine," Victoire said, calling out the command. Just as she predicted, Kara triumphantly ordered her queen to kill her bishop. "I told you," Victoire said, glaring daggers at Teddy.

"Yeah, but now look at the board," Teddy said, pointing.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking at," Victoire said.

"If you send your knight to H7, you'll have checkmate," Teddy said.

"I will?" Victoire gasped, staring at the board in an attempt to see what Teddy was seeing.

"Well this is just sad," Teddy said when Victoire failed to see it. "You probably had dozens of chances to beat each other and you kept missing them."

"Whatever," Victoire said, packing the game up without bothering to finish it. "I never wanted to play in the first place. There was just nothing better to do. And since when are you so good at chess?"

"My dorm mate, Jonah Sparks, is really into playing wizard's chess," Teddy confessed. "I learnt most of it from him. The rest is just raw natural talent."

"Did you want something?" Victoire asked pointedly.

"No, nothing," Teddy said. "I just thought I'd stop by and lend a hand."

"Well consider your hand returned," Victoire said.

"Okay, I admit it," Teddy said.

"Admit what?" Victoire asked.

"I did come over here for a reason," he confessed.

Victoire stared at him blankly, waiting for him to elaborate. Meanwhile, Teddy waited for Victoire to ask why he had come over.

"For goodness sake Teddy, just say it!" Kara exclaimed when neither of them spoke for a full minute.

"I was just curious if the rumours are true," Teddy said.

"What rumours?" Victoire asked.

"The rumours about Brianna," Teddy clarified.

"There are rumours about Brianna?" Kara asked in surprise. "Why haven't we heard anything about this?"

"I guess since people know she's your friend they've been keeping quiet whenever you're around," Teddy posited.

"Well, what's the rumour?" Victoire asked.

"You're sure you want to know?" Teddy checked.

"Yes," Victoire assured him.

"I probably shouldn't say anything if you don't know already," Teddy mused.

"Teddy Lupin, for the love of Merlin, tell me what you know!" Victoire exclaimed.

"Alright fine," Teddy said. He leaned forward and lowered his voice. "I heard from Billy who heard it from his older brother Todd, who heard it from Randy Lewson, who heard it from Mike Ollerton, who claims to have heard it from his father who works for the ministry…"

"Yeah?" Victoire pressed.

"Well rumour has it that Brianna's dad is in prison," Teddy revealed.

"What?" Kara cried. "No way!"

"What for?" Victoire asked.

"I heard he was a trained assassin who had already killed six guys and was going for a seventh when they nabbed him," Teddy said.

"It's not true!" Kara insisted. "So you can go tell Billy to tell his brother and all these other guys that they're all wrong about Brianna's dad."

"You sure about that?" Teddy asked. "Have you ever met the guy? Has Brianna ever talked about him? Why do you think she went home for the Easter holidays?"

"She went home because Easter is really big with her family and they would have been hurt if she'd stayed at Hogwarts," Victoire defended her friend.

"She went home because there are only three days a year when visitors are allowed to visit prisoners in Azkaban and one of those days just so happens to fall during the Easter holidays," Teddy said smugly.

"I can't believe someone would make all this up!" Kara cried.

"I don't know Kara," Victoire said slowly. "It could be true…"

"Not you too! Come on Victoire, we're supposed to be her friends!" Kara exclaimed.

"Yeah, but think about it Kara," Victoire said. "We knew something was bothering her, and we were pretty sure it had something to do with her family. What if this is it?"

"Oh come on!" Kara cried. "Brianna isn't the daughter of a murderer!"

"Yeah, because there's a type," Teddy said sarcastically. "You can tell by the tattoos on their forearms and the extra piercings in their ears."

"I know my friend, okay?" Kara said angrily. "And I know that this rumour is a complete lie. Victoire I can't believe you even entertained the idea for a second!"

Tears welling up in her eyes, Kara stormed off up the stairs to the girls' dorms.

"You should probably go," Victoire said, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Oh come on!" Teddy said. "It was just a rumour I heard – "

"Well you can stop spreading it now," Victoire declared. "Whether it's true or not, I don't like you talking about my friend behind her back."

"Alright, sorry," Teddy said apologetically.

"And tell Billy it was a lie," Victoire added. "I don't want him spreading the rumour either."

VvVvVvVvVvV

Over the next few days, Kara and Victoire struggled to find things to occupy themselves with. It had been raining nonstop ever since the beginning of the holidays, which meant that they'd been stuck inside the castle every day, and they'd already finished all the homework they'd been assigned out of sheer lack of better things to do. Eventually, they found themselves aimlessly wandering the Hogwarts halls as they tried to come up with something to do.

"We could paint our nails," Kara suggested.

"We did that yesterday," Victoire complained. "And the day before and the day before. Besides, I like how mine turned out this time. I don't want to take it off and then ruin it."

"We could play exploding snap," Kara proposed.

"It's not much fun with only two people," Victoire muttered. "We'd need Brianna to play a proper game."

"We could sit and stare at the wall in the common room," Kara grumbled, out of ideas.

"We've been doing that," Victoire whined. "I want to do something fun!"

"Hang on!" Kara exclaimed suddenly. "We could go outside!"

"Don't be silly, it's raining," Victoire said.

"No, it's not, look!" Kara said excitedly, pointing out a nearby window. "The rain has stopped and the sun is shining! We could go outside! What do you say?"

"I say yes!" Victoire cried eagerly, rushing back to the dorm to get her rain boots. After all this rain, it was sure to be muddy after all.

"Oh, fresh air!" Kara said, breathing in deeply the minute they took a step outside. "Oh how I've missed you," she sang.

"Shall we go for a walk around the lake?" Victoire suggested.

Kara agreed and they set off. When they arrived at the lake, they found that it was much bigger than usual. It seemed that it had rained so much that it had grown in diameter.

"Wow," Kara said when they saw it. "That's a lot of rain."

"Yeah," Victoire agreed. "The giant squid must be happy with all that extra room to swim around."

"I thought that was just a rumour?" Kara asked.

"No, there's really a squid in there," Victoire assured her. "I'll show you one day when it's nicer and he's closer to the surface. Sometimes he waves his tentacles around above the surface of the water."

"And sometimes when first years get too close to him, he grabs them and pulls them down to the bottom of the lake and they drown," Teddy said coming up behind them.

"That's not true," Victoire rolled her eyes. "Why are you all wet?" she asked, noticing that Teddy's hair was dripping.

"Me and Billy were out playing in the rain," Teddy explained. "Unfortunately, the rain stopped, so Billy went inside to ask Professor Flitwick if he knew a spell to make it start raining again."

"Seriously?" Victoire asked. "You want it to rain even more than it already has? Have you seen the size of the lake?"

"I have in fact," Teddy said. "However, I'm afraid it's not yet big enough."

"Big enough for what?" Victoire said.

"This!" he cried, suddenly jumping and pushing Victoire sideways, causing her to lose her balance and fall into the lake.

"What was that for?" Victoire spluttered.

"I guess I was wrong," Teddy said, scratching his head. "It is big enough."

"What's wrong with you?" Victoire climbed, pulling herself out of the freezing water.

"I thought it was shallow there," Teddy muttered. "I didn't think you'd fall all the way in."

"What'd you push me for in the first place?" Victoire demanded.

"Well to show you that the lake was too shallow still for Billy and I to go swimming without going out in the middle where the giant squid and all those grindylows and things are," Teddy said.

"And I suppose you couldn't have just said that instead of completely drenching me?" Victoire demanded.

Teddy shrugged.

"Why are you always popping up wherever I am, anyway?" Victoire demanded. "Don't you have your own friends to harass?"

"I'm just keeping an eye on – "

"Well you can stop now," Victoire cried. "I'm not that scared little girl from the first day of school anymore, I can take care of myself. I don't need you following around and keeping tabs on me for _papa_ anymore."

Teddy took a step back. "Sorry," he said. "I'll just go then."

"I think that's a good idea," Victoire agreed angrily. "Come on Kara, thanks to this nitwit, I have to change and take a shower. I smell like seaweed."

VvVvVvVvVvV

Over the next few days, Teddy kept his word and remained at a distance. He made sure to eat at the opposite end of the table and whenever Victoire was in the common room, he would go up to his dorm, or leave to study in the library. Victoire felt bad about what she'd said, but she was too stubborn to say so. Besides, it made more sense this way. She was in first year, so she should be spending her time with other first years, not some random third year who clearly didn't have enough friends of his own to spend time with.

The Easter holidays quickly came to a close and on the night before classes were meant to start back up again, the students that had went home returned just in time for the evening feast.

"So how was your visit with the family?" Victoire asked Brianna as soon as she'd sat down.

"It was fine. Quiet," she said. "But I want to hear about all the crazy stuff you guys got up to while I was gone."

"We didn't do much really," Kara said. "We got all that work done in the first few days and then we spent the rest of the holiday bored and trying to find fun activities to entertain ourselves. Oh, and Victoire and Teddy had a row."

"We did not have a row," Victoire mumbled.

"He's been avoiding you like the plague," Kara said. "You basically told him you hated having him around and that he should stay away from you."

"Yeah, well he pushed me in the lake!" Victoire cried.

"Wait, what?" Brianna gasped. "He pushed you in the lake? Was this before or after you had your row?"

"Before," Victoire said. "He pushed me in the lake, and so then I started yelling at him. Obviously I was just angry though, he should realize that."

"You were pretty mean though," Kara told her. "I wouldn't be surprised if he never spoke to you again."

"Oh, he'll come around," Victoire assured her. "We're like family. Besides, he's not ignoring me, he's just, you know, living his life. Like I told him to."

"Sure," Kara said, unconvinced.

When they finished dinner, they decided to head back to the common room for a game of exploding snap. With Brianna back, they had enough people for a proper game. They played for a while, and when the common room had emptied out considerably, Kara and Victoire told Brianna they needed to talk.

They'd discussed it over the holidays and decided that they were going to tell Brianna about the rumour about her father. At first, they were just going to hope the rumour would blow over, but then thy realized that if Brianna was going to overhear it somewhere by accident, it would be better to have been warned ahead of time by her friends.

"What's going on?" Brianna asked nervously.

"Well, it seems that there's this rumour that's been going around school over the holidays…" Kara said hesitantly.

"We wouldn't even bring it up, except that we wanted to make sure you heard it from us first," Victoire added.

"You guys are starting to scare me," Brianna said, looking back and forth between her two best friends.

"Alright, here goes," Victoire said, taking a deep breath. "People have been saying… well they've been saying…"

"They've been saying that your dad is in prison," Kara finished for Victoire.

Upon hearing the words, Brianna froze. Victoire and Kara exchanged a look and then each placed a hand on one of their friend's arms.

"How did they find out?" she asked.

Victoire frowned. "What?" she asked.

"Who was it?" Brianna asked, her face drained of all blood. "Who told?"

"Wait, so it's true?" Kara gaped.

Brianna shut her eyes. "Yeah, it's true," she said.

"We had no idea," Victoire said, wrapping an arm around her friend and pulling her into a hug. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, most of the time I'm fine," Brianna said. "It's why I had to go home over Easter – they only let you visit a few times a year and I didn't want to miss my chance."

"How long has he been…?" Victoire trailed off.

"Two years," Brianna said. "He has another three to serve before his sentence is over."

"Really?" Kara frowned. "They only gave him five years?"

"Yeah," Brianna said. "I mean personally, I think that five years it a little on the high side, but dad says he'll serve whatever time they demand of him."

"A little on the high side?" Kara asked. "Five years isn't all that much at all for killing six people."

"For what?" Brianna cried. "My dad didn't kill anyone!"

"He didn't?" Kara asked.

"No," Brianna said. "He stole some money from his boss and forged his boss's signature on a few important documents. Why would you think he killed people?"

"Well that's what everyone's been saying," Victoire said gently.

"Seriously?" Brianna cried. "People think my dad is a murderer?"

"Shh, calm down," Victoire said. "It's not like there's all that many people talking about it anyway. Besides, I told Teddy to shut it down."

"You heard it from Teddy?" Brianna gasped.

"Yeah, apparently he heard it from Billy who heard it from his brother who heard it from some dude and so on," Victoire said.

Brianna sighed. "Well I knew it was going to get out eventually," she said. "These things never stay secret for long. At least you guys know now, so I can stop keeping it hidden."

"You know you could have told us anytime?" Kara asked.

Brianna shrugged. "I didn't want to tell you when we first met, because we weren't really friends yet. And then once we became friends, it was just awkward to bring it up, because I'd gone so long without saying anything."

"Well at least now it's out in the open," Victoire said.

"I wish it was a little less out in the open to be honest," Brianna muttered.

"Hey," Kara said. "If anyone tries to mess with you, they'll have to go through the two of us first."

Brianna smiled. "Thanks guys. You really are the best friends ever."

VvVvVvVvVvV

True to her word, over the next couple of days, anytime it so much as looked like someone might be about to mention something about Brianna's dad to her, Kara would scare them off with a glare and a growl that made her sound a bit like a bear. After a few more days, everyone started to forget about the rumour as newer ones started springing up about other students. Everything was going back to normal, except for one thing.

"Hey," Victoire muttered, finding Teddy sitting in the back corner of the library, probably hiding from her.

"Oh, sorry, I'll get out of your way," Teddy muttered.

"No don't," Victoire said. "I actually wanted to talk to you."

"Are you sure?" Teddy asked. "You're not worried I'll just run off and write a letter to your dad the minute you leave?"

"Stop being such a crybaby," Victoire said, sitting down next to him.

"Gee, now I really want to talk to you," Teddy said sarcastically.

"I wanted to apologize," Victoire said.

"You're not doing a very good job of it," Teddy muttered.

"Would you be quiet and let me talk?" Victoire demanded. Teddy mimed zipping his lips shut and throwing away the key. Victoire rolled her eyes, but continued. "Listen, the things I said, I didn't really mean them. I was just mad because you'd pushed me into the lake and it was freezing cold and I was all wet and I was wearing this new top that I really like and I was afraid you'd ruined it and my hair was all gross and I just had one of those moments, you know?"

Teddy shrugged. "I guess," he said.

"Look," Victoire said. "I know I'm only a first year and I'm probably just a pain in the neck and you only hang around with me because Uncle Harry told you to, but I like to think that we're sort of friends. And I'd hate to have to spend the rest of my life always trying to avoid you."

"I guess even though you are a first year, and I'm a mature third year, I like to think that we're sort of friends too," Teddy said, a half smirk on his face.

"So can we keep being friends then?" Victoire asked hopefully.

"Sure," Teddy smiled. "Besides. Uncle Harry would kill me if I threw you to the wolves now."

Victoire shook her head and playfully punched Teddy in the shoulder, glad she had patched things up. It felt much better knowing that she had all her friends back on her side.

"So that top," Teddy said. "I didn't really ruin it, did I?"

"Nah, it was fine," Victoire assured him. "The house elves took great care of it and brought it back good as new."

"Phew," Teddy said in relief. "Because I don't think I could have afforded to replace it."


	9. May

Chapter 9: May 2012

 _Victoire,_

 _How are you?_

 _Yesterday, Louis was building a fort, and I accidentally tripped over one of the blanket and now he's mad at me. To get back at me, he snuck into my room and stole one of my dolls, but when maman found out, she made him give it back._

 _Papa has been working late a lot. He misses dinner sometimes, but maman says it's because he's working on this big project and he can't be distracted. Does that happen to you at school sometimes with your homework? Do they teachers sometimes assign a lot all at once and then you don't have time to play with your friends?_

 _Me and Louis are supposed to go play with Molly and Lucy later. Maman has to do some errands and she asked Aunt Audrey to watch us. I wanted to go shopping with maman, but she says I would just slow her down. I think she has me confused with Louis. It's not that I don't like playing at Aunt Audrey's house, because she always has really good snacks to eat. But Molly's just going to boss me around all afternoon._

 _I hope you're having fun at school. Just don't have too much fun because I'm not there. I miss you. Do you miss me too? I can't wait for summer, because then you'll be home and I'll have someone to play with besides Louis. Good luck with school._

 _Dominique_

"Is that another letter from your sister?" Brianna asked.

"Yeah," Victoire replied, grabbing a clean parchment to pen out a reply. "I think the separation is starting to get to her."

"I wish I had siblings," Kara sighed. "You guys are so lucky."

"Trust me," Victoire said. "Having siblings is most definitely not always the best. Sometimes I wish I was an only child like you."

"Yeah, but if you were an only child, you'd realize how special it really is to have brothers and sisters," Kara said. "Growing up, I only ever had myself to play with. Can you imagine how lonely that was?"

"Yeah, but siblings will mess up your stuff and steal your things," Victoire said.

"One time, my sister found some paint in the basement and decided she was going to surprise me and paint my room. She got it all over everything and completely destroyed my bedspread," Brianna said.

Kara shrugged. "I still think it would have been a lot more fun to grow up with a brother or a sister."

At that moment, the door to the dorm opened and Caitlin came in, pulling her robes off and tossing them onto the floor. She grabbed a textbook off her bed and then turned around and disappeared back down to the common room.

"Ugh, she didn't even put it in her trunk or anything," Brianna complained. "She is such a slob!"

"I know, right?" Victoire agreed. "I mean would it kill her to put her dirty clothes down the laundry chute and keep her things in her trunk or on her side table?"

"I literally can't even walk through the room without almost tripping over her stuff," Kara added. "And my bed isn't anywhere near hers'!"

"This is what it would be like," Brianna said. "If you had a sibling, it would be like living with Caitlin all the time."

"I'm not entirely sure I believe you," Kara said. "This is pretty extreme after all…"

"No, it really isn't," Victoire assured her. "Younger siblings do not clean up after themselves. In fact, most of the time, it's even worse than this."

"Huh," Kara said. "Well I still think it'd have been nice."

Victoire smiled as Kara returned her attention to her nails and Brianna continued to read her magazine. Grabbing a textbook so that she would have a surface to write on, Victoire began her letter to her sister.

 _Dominique,_

 _I'm doing well. With only a month left before end-of-year exams, we're all starting to get a little nervous. All the older students keep saying that first-year exams are terrible, and the Professors keep telling us we have nothing to worry about, so I don't really know what to expect._

 _My roommate Caitlin is really starting to get on my nerves. She's so messy, always leaving her things lying around on the floor and in other people's spaces. Also, she never puts her dirty clothes down the laundry chute and now the room is starting to smell like dirty clothes. I might just gather them all up and toss them down myself if I get mad enough._

 _I miss you too. I'm glad to hear that you're spending time with your cousins. Don't let Molly boss you around too much – you know you're older than her, right? Even though it's only by a few months, you'll still get to start Hogwarts before her which sort of makes you a whole year older. I know you can't wait until you finally get to come to Hogwarts, but trust me, you should enjoy the time you have left at home with maman and papa and Louis. Once you get here, you'll be missing the days when you could play on the beach and swim in the ocean without worrying about your Herbology assignment or your Astronomy homework._

 _I'll see you very soon. The term is almost over and then I'll be home for two whole months!_

 _Victoire_

VvVvVvVvVvV

"Ugh," Brianna cried a few days later as she, Kara, and Victoire attempted to revise for their Potions final. "All these ingredients! Do we really have to know all their properties and uses?"

"Well Professor Abbott-Longbottom did emphasizes that that was going to be a key feature of the exam," Kara pointed out. "It's not like it's a practical final, like the O.W.L.s or the N.E.W.T.s have."

"That doesn't mean we don't have to know the practical stuff though," Victoire said. "I've heard that sometimes, the potions exam will have questions that simulate a practical situation."

"Like what?" Brianna asked.

"Oh, you know," Victoire said. "Stuff like; you're brewing a babbling beverage and you've just added the final ingredients. You begin to stir counter-clockwise and suddenly, your potion begins to thicken and become sludge-like. What have you done wrong and what can you do to set your potion right?"

"Oh, I hate those kinds of questions!" Kara exclaimed. "Why can't it just be really straightforward questions, like what kind of stirring rod to use for a certain potion, or which potions require a high heat and which ones need to be cooked on a low heat?"

"Well then it wouldn't be a challenge," Teddy said, appearing out of the blue and taking a seat. "They aren't going to send you onto second year if you can't handle a simple sludge-i-fying babbling beverage. What are you going to do when your simple sleeping draught is bubbling it's way up and out of your cauldron, or when your confusing concoction starts turning unhealthy shades of pink?"

"I wish the exams could just be over and done with," Brianna sighed. "Then we could just forget about all this stuff for the summer."

"Yeah, and then when you come back in September, you'll be utterly behind because you didn't revise at all over the holiday," Teddy shot back.

"When did you become such a nerd?" Victoire asked jokingly.

"Hey, my father was top of his class," Teddy said, rounding on Victoire. "It's in my genes."

"Sorry," Victoire held up her hands, sensing it was a touchy subject.

"Do you think your father might have some old notes he could lend us?" Kara asked. "If he was top of his class, they must have been pretty good."

"Oh, Kara, I don't think – "

"It's fine," Teddy said, interrupting Victoire. "Sorry Kara, but I don't have access to any of my dad's old school notes. And actually, I've got to be somewhere."

He pushed his chair back and made a hasty exit. Kara frowned.

"Did I say something?" she asked.

"It's not your fault," Victoire assured her. "You couldn't have known, but Teddy's parents both died in the Battle of Hogwarts."

"Oh my gosh I feel like a complete Flob!" Kara said. "I can't believe I asked that!"

"Like I said, you couldn't have known," Victoire repeated.

"Does he talk about it much?" Kara asked.

"Not too much," Victoire said. "I mean, it happened when he was a baby, so he doesn't really remember them. So he doesn't have that feeling of having known them and lost them. They're just… missing," she used a term Teddy had used in the past.

"I wonder if it would have been worse, if he'd had the chance to know them first?" Kara wondered.

"It would have been worse," Brianna said quietly. "Knowing your father, and not being able to see him; it's the worst."

"Oh, Bri, I'm sorry," Kara said, reaching out a hand to comfort their friend. "I wasn't thinking. Merlin, I need to stop opening my big mouth!"

"No, really, it's fine," Brianna assured her. "I don't want you guys tiptoeing around me all the time. And it's not like my dad's dead or anything. In three years, he'll be back and home and everything will go back to normal."

"Yeah, but I bet it sucks right now," Victoire sympathized.

"Yeah," Brianna said. "It does."

VvVvVvVvVvV

As the days continued to pass, the end of May began to arrive and the June exams began to loom.

"I'm never going to remember all this," Kara cried, throwing her textbook across the dorm. "I mean, come on! Emeric the Evil, Elfric the Eager, Egbert the Egregious…? Why does everybody's names have to start with the letter 'E'?"

"And who cares about the Soap Blizzard of 1378?" Victoire added. "How does a Soap Blizzard even cause an economic crash anyway?"

"We've been studying so much for the past for weeks that I haven't even touched a bottle of nail polish in almost five days," Brianna cried. "Look at my toes, I'm ashamed to walk around barefoot at all with these disasters."

"I think we should take a study break," Kara suggested. "We deserve it. We have been revising almost all day. Plus, I feel like nothing I read now is going to go into my brain. I have to let the information in there settle before I can try stuffing in more."

"I agree," Victoire said, slamming her textbook shut and tossing it to the end of the bed. "Bring out the nail polish remover!"

Pushing aside their study materials as well, Kara and Brianna joined Victoire on her bed and the girls began to remove their nail polish, eager to put on some fresh polish that would actually look nice, hopefully for at least a few days.

"Oh my gosh, seriously?" Caitlin asked, walking in. "You guys are _always_ painting your nails!" she cried. "Why do you have to be such stereotypical girls? Be interesting for once in your life!" She pulled her sweater off and dumped it on the floor, grabbing a t-shirt from the pile of dirty clothes littering the ground and sniffing it once before throwing it over her head. "Merlin, it's like all you care about is your appearance! Don't you know we have exams coming up? You know you should really be studying?"

"For your information, we were studying about thirty seconds ago, but we thought we'd take a little break," Brianna informed the girl. "And speaking of living with terrible roommates, did you know that the dorm was a shared space? Because it seems to me that you're under the impression the dorm is one giant hamper, which it isn't. I mean, did you seriously just pick that shirt out of your dirty laundry and throw it on?"

"What does it matter to you whether I wear clothes more than once before having them cleaned?" Caitlin demanded. "I'll have you know, it's actually better for the clothes not to be washed so many times, because every time they are washed, they lose a bit of their composition."

"I'd rather clothes with a bit less composition than smelling like a troll," Brianna yelled back, getting to her feet.

"I'd rather smell like a troll than have everyone thinking I'm just some dumb pretty girl who's never going to amount to anything," Caitlin countered. "At least I have brains."

"I'll have you know, I have both brains and beauty," Brianna cried. "And I also have the good sense to shower every morning, something I _know_ you don't do, because we share a bathroom."

"Normal people don't need to shower every day," Caitlin defended herself. "Maybe you need to because you're just a naturally dirty person, but most people only have to shower every other day."

"Newsflash," Brianna roared. "You are the kind of person that needs to shower everyday. I don't know if you know this, but running around the castle five times every day makes a person sweat, and sweat makes a person smell."

"Well excuse me for trying to keep in shape," Caitlin cried. "I happen to be trying to make the Quidditch team next year, and that's certainly not going to happen if I lie around all day playing dress up and putting on makeup!"

"Well if you didn't eat so much at meals, you might not have so many carbs to burn off," Brianna countered.

"Well if you knew anything about athletes, we need to eat more _because_ we're going to burn it off," Caitlin yelled.

"Well if you knew anything at all, you'd know that athletes are people with teams, and right now, you're just a first year who doesn't have a prayer of making the team next year," Brianna shouted.

"I can't believe I got stuck rooming with you!" Caitlin cried. "I'm going to go talk to Professor Longbottom right now and get you traded to another house!"

"Oh you can try, but it's not going to work," Brianna told her.

"We'll see about that!" Caitlin screeched, slamming the door behind her as she left.

"Well that was interesting," Kara commented after she left, breaking the silence that followed.

"She had it coming," Brianna muttered, flopping back down on Victoire's bed. "Hand me the nail polish remover, I still have to finish my other foot."

VvVvVvVvVvV

"So it seems we have a bit of a problem here girls," Professor Longbottom said later in his office. True to her word, Caitlin had gone straight to their Head of House and requested not only for Brianna to be transferred to another house, but for Kara and Victoire to be transferred too. As a result, all five first year Gryffindor girls had been summoned to Professor Longbottom's office to talk out their problems.

"We wouldn't if you would just reassign their houses," Caitlin grumbled.

"Wouldn't it be easier if you just left?" Brianna countered.

"I'm not the problem," Caitlin threw back. "You three are."

"Alright, let's back up here," Professor Longbottom said, holding up his hand. "Caitlin, what specifically do you find is annoying about your dorm mates that makes you want them transferred?"

Caitlin crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Well for one thing, they're always stinking up the room with the stench of their nail polish," she said.

"Okay, if we're going to talk about smelling up the dorm – "

"Brianna, please give Caitlin the chance to finish," Professor Longbottom insisted.

Brianna sat back sullenly as Caitlin continued.

"Also, they're always complaining about things that are so silly and unimportant. It's like, come on! Wake up and join the real world where people are dealing with real problems!" she cried.

"Anything else?" Professor Longbottom asked.

"They're always making it seem like me and Raina are the bad room mates," Caitlin said. "We don't do anything and they're always yelling at us for something or other, or else they're whispering about us in the bathroom. I'm tired of it!"

"Alright, Brianna, what about you?" Professor Longbottom asked when Caitlin had finished. "How do you feel about your room mates?"

"Well for one thing, Caitlin treats the dorm like a hamper and a garbage can all in one," Brianna said.

"I do n – "

"Let Brianna speak," Professor Longbottom said. "She was kind enough to do the same for you."

Caitlin made a face, but kept her mouth shut.

"She leaves her stuff all over the floor. I can barely walk in there without tripping over her stuff. And she never sends her clothes down to the laundry, so the room smells like dirty laundry all the time," Brianna said.

"Kara? Victoire? You feel the same way as Brianna?" Professor Longbottom asked. The girls nodded, backing their friend up. "And what about you Raina? How do you feel about all this?"

Raina shook her head. "I don't want to upset anybody," she said.

"This is a safe space," Professor Longbottom said. "You can say anything here and nobody will judge you for it."

Raina took a deep breath. "I just wish we could all get along," she said. "But ever since our first night, it was like Kara and Brianna and Victoire were against me."

"Yeah, well the fertilizer was a big factor in that," Brianna muttered.

"Even since Professor Longbottom confiscated my fertilizer though, you're always whispering behind our backs and never including us in anything," Raina shrugged. "I guess I just hoped we would all be friends."

"Caitlin, do you think you share some of Raina's feelings?" Professor Longbottom asked.

"No way!" Caitlin cried. "I don't want to be friends with those stuck-up prissy girls! If they can't handle a tiny pile of laundry that I simply haven't had time to carry over to the laundry chute, then I have no use for them."

"The laundry chute is literally right inside the bathroom," Brianna said. "It's like, all of fifteen steps. Is that really so hard?"

"When you're training as hard as I am, not to mention trying to keep your grades up, I guess it means there's a lot less time for things like that," Caitlin countered, her voice rising.

"All right girls, calm down," Professor Longbottom intervened. "Clearly there are a lot of issues at play here, so I'm going to make a few suggestions. "Caitlin, put your dirty clothes in the laundry instead of leaving them all around the dorm."

"This isn't all my fault," Caitlin cried. "You can't just – "

"I know it's not your fault, but this is the part you can play to try and create a better atmosphere," Professor Longbottom said. "Raina, as for you… well just make sure you keep the fertilizer out of the dorm."

"But I have been doing that," Raina said. "Ever since you confiscated it and made me keep my plants in the greenhouse."

"Great, well you just keep that up," Professor Longbottom said. "As for you three," he said, rounding on Victoire, Kara, and Brianna, "I think it's safe to say that in befriending each other, you've managed to isolate everyone else around you. Now I know what it's like to be the friend on the outside – always wanting to be a part of the group, but never fully joining. Now I'm not going to force the five of you to be friends, but I am asking that you at least try to include Caitlin and Raina in things sometimes. Don't shut them out, let them be a part of the things you do. And maybe they'll surprise you and you'll discover that there really was a great friend to be had there."

Professor Longbottom talked for a while more about friendship and outsiders and insiders and then sent the girls on their way. As soon as they were out in the hall and the door to Professor Longbottom's office was shut, Caitlin turned to face her roommates, hands on her hips.

"I'll pick up my laundry," she said. "But don't expect me to jump on Victoire's bed and paint my toenails with you all, because I'm not going to that," she said, turning on her heel and disappearing down the hall.

Raina looked after her with a sad look on her face.

"So do you want to come study with us?" Victoire asked her, feeling bad for their other roommate.

Raina's face lit up. "I'd love to!" she said eagerly. "I have to get my books from the dorm first though."

"So do we," Kara said with a smile. "We can go together."

VvVvVvVvVvV

Over the next few days, the girls continued to study with Raina and quickly discovered that she was an extremely good asset to have when studying. Unbeknownst to them, Raina was actually a secret genius, especially in Herbology, and her notes were phenomenal. Even Teddy, in sneaking a peek at some of the notes, claimed that he had never understood the purpose of certain planting techniques, but could now see why they were important.

 _Dominique_ ,

 _To answer your previous letter, yes, I miss you terribly and cannot wait until end-of-year exams are over and can come home and relax. Don't worry, I promise I'll be sure to play with you this summer and not just sit in my room penning notes to my new friends (of course, I will write to them sometimes, just as I take time away from them to write to you)._

 _Remember my dorm mate Raina? Well turns out she's quite smart. She's been studying with us, and I finally feel confident enough to write my exams, which incidentally start week after next. Despite feeling ready, I am very nervous, so please send me some luck during the two weeks we'll be writing them. If I feel this nervous for regular exams, imagine how I'm going to feel when it's time for my O.W.L.s? I'm sure to be a disaster. Luckily you and Louis will both be here to calm me down._

 _I was surprised to find out that there would still be a week of classes after exams were over. I don't know what they expect to teach us, as nobody will be listening, but I guess they don't want us simply roaming the grounds aimlessly for a week before the Hogwarts Express departs. I suppose they also have to assign us our summer work, though I've been hoping that they forget this year and let us enjoy our summers in peace. Teddy says that will never happen, but a girl can dream._

 _Say hello to maman and papa for me, I haven't had the chance to write them this week with all the studying. And tell Louis that no, he may not use my art supplies to paint a giant goblin on his wall. He'll only make a mess and ruin all my paintbrushes._

 _See you soon,_

 _Victoire_


	10. June

Chapter 10: June 2012

Finally, exams time had descended upon Hogwarts. O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. students frantically tried to shove last bits of information into their heads before they had to enter the examination room. The first years could barely eat, not knowing what was ahead of them.

"Well, here goes," Kara said nervously as they stood outside the Transfiguration classroom, waiting to be let in for their first exam. "Good luck guys."

"Good luck," Victoire and Brianna wished back. The door opened and Professor Tonks ushered them in. This was it.

VvVvVvVvVvV

"That was a disaster!" Kara cried as she, Victoire, and Brianna walked out of their last exam of the year. "Who knew Charms would be the most difficult exam of all?"

"It felt like the exam was written a thousand years ago," Brianna said.

"He probably hasn't updated it since our parent's generation," Victoire said. "I'm convinced some of the stuff in there was stuff we never even learned this year."

"I just hope I pass," Kara said. "I cannot go to summer school. I need my vacation."

"Me too," Brianna agreed. "At least we have one last week of peace before we find out how we did."

"I don't need O's and E's," Victoire said. "As long as I have an A in everything, I'm happy."

In the past, regular school exams had been graded using the percentage system, but for the past five years or so, the school had changed their system so that they used the letter grades at all times. This way, students would be familiar with the grading scheme from the beginning.

The next week of classes were practically a joke. For the first few days, the Professors tried to teach, but with the exams behind them, none of the first years were listening. By the end of the week, the Professors just wrote the assigned summer work on the board and sat back while their students enjoyed the beginning of their summer break.

"I can't believe how much work they've assigned for us over the summer," Victoire complained. "It's going to take at least a month to get that done, so that's like, half our vacation gone right there."

"We should collaborate," Brianna suggested. "You do the Potions assignment and the Astronomy chart, and I'll work on Transfiguration and History. Kara, you can take Charms and Herbology and then we'll send our work to each other and we can copy."

"What about the Defence essay?" Kara asked.

"We'll have to each write our own for that one," Brianna sighed. "It's supposed to be a personal interview with someone who lived through either the first or second wizarding wars, so we have to have different material."

"I can't decide who to interview," Victoire said. "I mean; the easiest option would be my parents. They were in the Order and they fought at the Battle of Hogwarts and everything. But if I interviewed Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione, that would be insanely cool."

"How is that even a question?" Kara asked. "If you have the option of interviewing Harry Potter for an essay on the second wizarding war, then you go for it."

"I guess so," Victoire sighed. "But then what if I interviewed Grandma and Grandfather Weasley?" she wondered. "They lived through both wars."

Brianna and Kara both gave Victoire a look.

"Alright, fine, I'll owl Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron and see if they can make time for me," Victoire muttered.

"You know; it's really frustrating that you have all these amazing people you can interview. You know, people who really fought in the war," Kara said. "Meanwhile, my options are my parents – who basically just shut their doors and hoped the Death Eaters never came calling – or my Aunt and Uncle, who left the country until it was all over."

"Hey, you know, I don't need to interview Uncle Harry, Uncle Ron, _and_ Aunt Hermione," Victoire said. "What if I asked Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione if they'd mind being interviewed by you guys? We'd have the three best essays in the school!"

"Oh, well you know, I think that idea you had about interviewing your grandparents was a great idea," Kara said. "So you should do that, and then I'll just interview Harry Potter."

"Nice try," Victoire smirked. "But seriously, I really think they'd go for it."

"Yeah?" Brianna asked. "That would be amazing!"

"I'll owl them later tonight and we can set it up for sometime over the summer," Victoire said.

"Guys!" Raina cried, running up to them in excitement. "Our grades have been finalized, Professor Longbottom has them in his office!"

"Oh my God," Brianna said. "Should we go?"

"Yes," Kara decided. "We should just get this over with."

The four of them trooped down to the greenhouses together and tentatively knocked on their Professor's office door.

"Yes?" Professor Longbottom asked, the door magically opening for them. "I assume you're here for your grades?" he asked.

"That's right," Victoire confirmed.

"Just give me one second," he said, reaching for a stack of parchments and sifting through for their individual pages. "I'm glad to see the four of you getting along so well. Where's Caitlin?" he asked.

"She's running laps outside the castle," Raina said. "She's hoping to make the Quidditch team next year."

"And you're all getting along?" their Professor asked.

"Oh yes," Victoire lied. "We're the best of friends."

"I'm glad to hear it," Professor Longbottom said. "Here we are… Brianna Jackson, Kara Jensen, Raina Hudson, and Victoire Weasley. Congratulations girls, you all did fantastically."

He handed them their reports and Victoire's stomach gave a nervous flip as she looked down at her grades, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw them. She had A's in Defence, Transfiguration, and History of Magic; E's in both Astronomy and Charms, and she even had two O's; in Herbology and Potions.

"How'd you guys do?" Victoire asked.

"Passed everything," Kara said with a smile. "Even got an O in Charms!"

"No O's for me," Brianna said. "But I'm happy. I got all E's except for in Defence and Astronomy!"

"Raina?" Victoire asked, since Professor Longbottom was there, and also because she was trying to be nicer to the odd girl.

"O's in Herbology and Astronomy and E's in everything else," Raina smiled.

"Wow, that's amazing!" Kara exclaimed. "What about you Victoire?"

Victoire told her friends her grades.

"That's amazing!" Brianna said when she was finished.

"I'm very proud of all you girls," Professor Longbottom said. "You all did exceptionally well in my class and I look forward to having you all again next year."

"Thanks Professor," Victoire said, leading everyone else out.

"Well I guess now we can relax," Kara laughed. "No summer school for us!"

"Nothing but sunshine and sleeping in," Victoire agreed.

VvVvVvVvVvV

 _Dear Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione,_

 _How are you doing? I'm doing great! My first year at Hogwarts is basically done! I got my grades back earlier today; three A's, two E's, and two O's; in Herbology and Potions._

 _Anyway, the reason I'm writing you both is that we've been assigned an essay for Defence to write over the summer. We're supposed to interview someone who lived through the first or second wizarding war and my friends Kara and Brianna were hoping they could each interview one of you. I'll completely understand if you're too busy or don't want to, but it would really mean a lot to them and to me._

 _Hope you're well. Say hi to Rose and Hugo for me, and I'll see you at the next family gathering._

 _Love from,_

 _Victoire_

VvVvVvVvVvV

"Well, this is it," Victoire said with a sigh as she dragged her trunk along the platform at Hogsmeade station. The year was officially over and the students of Hogwarts were heading home. "I can't believe how fast that went."

"Next time we see this place, we'll be second years," Kara said.

"Yeah, and we'll be the ones bossing around the first year Flobs," Brianna smiled.

"Come on, you don't really want to be the people that harass the first years, do you?" Victoire asked.

"Of course I do," Brianna said. "My sister Savannah is starting school next year."

Victoire laughed as she heaved her trunk onto the train and began to walk down the corridor to find an empty compartment. "Well don't harass her too much," she said. "Remember our first month? She's probably going to be terrified."

"Yeah, I know," Brianna said. "But what fun is having a sister if not to torment her?"

"Yeah, well come September first, I bet you'll be all sweet and protective, yelling at any Slytherin that tries to call Savannah a Flob," Victoire countered.

"You've got me all wrong, my friend," Brianna shook her finger at Victoire. "All wrong."

Soon, the three girls were settled in their compartment and the train began to move. The trolley lady began to make her rounds and the prefects came around, reminding everyone that underage magic wouldn't be permitted outside of Hogwarts.

Around noon, an owl appeared outside their window, pecking to get in.

"It's Pigwidgeon!" Victoire exclaimed.

"Who?" Kara asked as Victoire struggled to open the window.

"My Uncle Ron's owl," Victoire replied. "Remember, I owled him about the interviews."

With a little help, she got the window open and the owl flew in, sitting still long enough for Victoire to untie the letter from his leg before he started hooting and flapping and flying all over the compartment.

"Still as excitable as ever," Victoire commented.

"So?" Kara asked. "What does it say?"

Victoire unrolled the letter and read it over quickly.

 _Dear Victoire,_

 _That's wonderful news! I'm sure your parents were proud to hear how well you're doing in school. Rose and Hugo are doing wonderfully and they ask about you often. They're so jealous that their older cousin is at school already, even though they still have years before it's their turn._

 _As for your request, we would absolutely love to have your friends come and interview us. And don't let your Uncle Ron make you feel bad, he completely understands why you would want to interview Harry for yourself and not him. It's an honor even to be asked, really. Just let us know when you'd like to bring them over and we'll make sure Rose and Hugo are with George and Angelina that day. You know how Hugo and Roxanne love to play together._

 _Wish all our best to your family. We really must get together sometime just the nine of us._

 _Love from,_

 _Aunt Hermione_

"They said yes!" Victoire exclaimed excitedly. "They just said to let them know when and they're totally on board!"

"That's amazing!" Brianna exclaimed. "Victoire, you are awesome."

"Have we mentioned that we're only friends with you because of your family connections?" Kara asked.

Victoire smirked. "Yeah right," she muttered. "You know you can't get enough of me."

VvVvVvVvVvV

"Hey," Teddy said a little while later, coming into the girls' compartment uninvited and plopping down in the empty spot next to Brianna. "Last chance to do a little underage magic. As soon as we get off the train it's a magic-less summer."

"And what magic do you want us to do?" Victoire asked. "We know _lumos, alohomora, wingardium leviosa, reparo, colloportus, incendio,_ and _mollis_."

"We can also turn a match into a needle," Brianna added.

"Ooh, we can do the curse of the bogies," Kara said. "Do you want us to give you a head cold?"

"Alright, fine," Teddy said, holding his hands up in surrender. "I guess first year magic isn't all that exciting then, is it?"

"Not unless you need to unlock a door in a dark room or repair a broken vase and then light it on fire," Victoire said.

"Or some good old-fashioned levitating," Kara said.

"Actually, we could have really benefitted from that when we were trying to get our trunks up on the luggage rack," Brianna commented. "It would have been a lot easier than trying to toss them up there."

"You were throwing your luggage?" Teddy asked. "Why would you do that?"

"We're too short to reach it properly and this compartment didn't have a stool like the one we sat in at Christmas," Victoire said.

"You should have come and found me," Teddy said. "I'm big and strong. I could have lifted them up."

"Oh yeah, you're so big and strong," Victoire said sarcastically. "Is that why I can see the bones in your arms when you're wearing short sleeves?"

"So I'm a little on the skinnier side," Teddy defended himself. "And you can't actually see my bones, you're just exaggerating."

Victoire smirked. "Either way, you're definitely not who I'd call to lift heavy objects."

"I take offense to that!" Teddy cried in mock indignation. "And I cannot sit here one more second if you insist on mocking me."

He stormed out dramatically while Victoire rolled her eyes. "He needs a hobby," she said as Kara and Brianna giggled.

VvVvVvVvVvV

Soon the Hogwarts express was pulling into King's Cross station and the conductor was announcing that they had arrived. Filled with mixed emotions of happiness and sadness, the girls levitated their trunks down off the luggage rack and disembarked from the train.

"There are my parents!" Victoire said, pointing. She could pick them out of any crowd. "Come say hello," she said, dragging her friends along with her.

"Victoire!" Dominique cried, running to give her big sister a hug the moment she saw her. "You're home!"

"I'm home," Victoire confirmed, letting her sister grab onto her as she continued to make her way over to the rest of her family. " _Maman_ , _papa_ , these are my friends, Kara and Brianna," she said.

"It's nice to meet you," her father said. "We've heard a lot about the two of you. We're so glad Victoire found such great friends."

"But you don't like them better than me, right?" Dominique said, looking up at Victoire.

"Of course not," Victoire assured her. "You're my favorite, you know that."

"What about me?" Louis demanded, hands on his hips.

"I'm sorry, I meant she was my favorite sister," Victoire assured him. "You'll always be my favorite brother."

Louis smiled, appeased.

"I think I see my parents over there," Kara said, pointing a little way down the platform.

"And my mom's over there," Brianna added, pointing in the opposite direction.

"Well I guess this is it," Victoire said sadly.

"We'll see each other soon," Kara assured her. "I mean; we have that Defence essay to do."

"That's right!" Victoire brightened.

"We'll keep in touch," Brianna promised.

"Definitely!" Kara agreed.

Victoire pulled her friends into a hug. "See you soon," she said, watching them roll their trunks away in opposite directions.

"Well then, I guess there's nothing to do but to go home," Victoire said, turning back to her family. "How are we travelling?"

"Actually," her father said mysteriously. "We're not going home right away."

"We're not?" Victoire asked.

"Nope!" Dominique exclaimed.

"Where are we going then?" Victoire wondered.

"Get in the car and you'll see," her father told her.

"We have a car?" Victoire asked.

"A lot happened while you were away, _chèrie_ ," her mother said.

They piled into the brand new shiny black car with Victoire in the middle of her siblings in the backseat. They drove to the Leaky Cauldron and then her father parked and they all piled out.

"What are we doing?" Victoire asked.

"It's a celebration!" her mother said.

"I'm sure you wanted to wait until you got home to tell us about your grades, but your Uncle Ron let it slip how well you'd done and we thought it would be nice to take you out for a treat," her father said.

"We're getting ice cream!" Louis exclaimed, unable to keep the secret anymore.

"Seriously?" Victoire asked excitedly. There were many delicious things offered at Hogwarts, but one thing the house elves didn't serve was ice cream.

" _Oui chèrie,_ " her mother said.

"Maybe we'll even make it a family tradition," her father added.

Together, the family entered the magical bar and passed through to Diagon Alley where they lined up in front of Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlour to buy their ice creams. Once they had them, they found seats at a table on the shop's terrace and took their time to enjoy them before heading home for supper. It was a lovely afternoon, and Victoire was glad to be able to enjoy some time with her family. It had been a long year.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Hope you liked the story.**

 **Reviews are much appreciated.**

 **For more in the House of the Brave series, please visit my profile page. More stories coming soon.**

 **Next up in Victoire's story: Triple the Trouble**


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